OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
4:30 PM – Tuesday, December 5, 2023
Peru’s constitutional court demanded for an instant “humanitarian release” for the country’s former President, Alberto Fujimori, who has been serving a 25-year sentence in prison for human rights abuses and corruption.
On Tuesday, Peru’s constitutional court requested for an immediate “humanitarian release” for the imprisoned former President Alberto Fujimori, 85, who has been serving a lengthy sentence related to the death squad killings of 25 Peruvians in the 1990s.
The Peruvian court ruled for Fujimori’s immediate release from the detention center, where he has been imprisoned, with the court telling state prisons to “immediately free Fujimori on the same day.”
Fujimori was accused of murdering 25 people in 1991 and 1992, while his government was battling against the Shining Path guerrillas.
In 2009, Fujimori was then sentenced to 25 years in prison on human rights abuse charges. He was accused of being the “mastermind” behind the slayings of 25 Peruvians by a military death squad during his ruling from 1990 to 2000.
The former president, who ruled Peru over two decades ago, was granted a presidential pardon in 2017, but his attempts to return to freedom were frequently blocked by pressure from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR).
The 2017 pardon that freed the former leader was upheld by the court.
Fujimori’s 2017 pardon, which was granted by Peru’s then-President Pablo Kuczynski, was abolished under tensions from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and its reputation was the topic of legal quarreling since that time.
As a heavily controversial figure in Peru, Fujimori’s pardon infuriated the country, with parts of the country seeing him as a dictator and other parts of the country seeing him as a hero. The pardon also generated an outcry from the families of victims of the massacre.
In October 2018, Fujimori was ordered back to prison.
Although he is set to be released, human rights activists condemned the ruling on Tuesday, which they said “defies international organizations” that have demanded justice for innocent victims of state violence.
“This is very serious for the rule of law. This is going to have international legal consequences,” said Carlos Rivera, who is a lawyer for the NGO Legal Defense Institute.
Previously, a lower court in the southern city of Ica had been ordered by the constitutional court to release Fujimori, but that court refused, claiming in its ruling last Friday that it “lacked the authority” to do so.
Instead, it sent the case back to the constitutional court.
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