Lima, Nov. 28 (EFE) – Judges of Peru’s Constitutional Court clashed Wednesday over an opinion that became public the day before that opens once again the possibility of the release of former President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), sentenced to 25 years in prison for crimes against humanity.
The president of the Constitutional Court, Francisco Morales, said on Wednesday that former president Alberto Fujimori should be “immediately released from prison,” despite the fact that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has called for him to serve his sentence behinf bars.
“We value the opinions of the Inter-American Court, but in this case we believe that this court has the primary jurisdiction to determine the freedom of a Peruvian citizen,” he said.
On the other hand, Manuel Monteagudo, another magistrate of the same court who voted against the decision, said to the media that complying with it would be “a legal impossibility.”
And lawyer Carlos Rivera, who defends the relatives of the victims of the massacres for which Fujimori was convicted, told EFE that he will go back to the Inter-American Court if the former president’s release is ordered.
“Of course, the path we will automatically take is to ask the Inter-American Court for a new process of compliance monitoring,” he said.
The pardon that comes and goes
The resolution, shared on Tuesday by local media, declares as inadmissible the consultations by the Ministry of Justice and the victims’ lawyer, who tried to prevent the execution of an habeas corpus petition filed in 2022 by the former president’s lawyer to reinstate the humanitarian pardon granted to Fujimori on Christmas Eve 2017.
Then president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski granted Fujimori a humanitarian pardon for health reasons in order to seek the support in Congress of his daughter Keiko Fujimori’s Popular Force party as he faced a presidential impeachment process for his alleged connection to the international corruption scandal Odebrecht.
The humanitarian pardon was annulled months later due to irregularities and following an appeal by the Inter-American Court, which called on the Peruvian state to guarantee justice for the victims of the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta massacres, for which Fujimori was sentenced to prison.
On Oct. 3, 2018, a court reinstated the former president’s arrest for irregularities against “the principle of impartiality and objectivity” due to Kuczynski’s political entanglements at the time of granting the pardon.
In March 2022, Fujimori’s lawyer filed an habeas corpus appeal to request again the release of his client, which was favorably decided by a judge in the city of Ica and reconfirmed days later by the Constitutional Court, which on Wednesday insisted that it be complied with.
The former president, 85 years old, remains in the Barbadillo prison, east of Lima, along with former presidents Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006) and Pedro Castillo (2021-2022). EFE
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