Former President Alberto Fujimori of Peru has been released from prison on humanitarian grounds at the age of 85, despite a request from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to delay his release. Fujimori was serving a 25-year sentence for his involvement in the slayings of 25 Peruvians by death squads in the 1990s and was released by order of Peru’s Constitutional Court. Fujimori, who governed Peru from 1990 to 2000, was convicted in 2009 on charges of human rights abuses, specifically for his role in orchestrating the killings while the government fought the Shining Path communist rebels.
Fujimori, who is in poor health and was photographed wearing a face mask and receiving supplemental oxygen, was greeted by dozens of supporters upon his release. He is expected to live at his daughter’s house. His pardon, which was granted in 2017 by then-President Pablo Kuczynski, was overturned by the country’s Supreme Court in 2018 under pressure from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which ordered Fujimori to return to prison to serve out his sentence. However, the Constitutional Court has ruled in favor of the 2017 humanitarian pardon, stating that the “seriousness of the crimes for which [Fujimori] was sentenced is evident,” but they cannot ignore the humanitarian pardon and consider Fujimori’s advanced age and poor health as well.
The ruling has sparked outrage among the relatives of the victims, with one woman stating that she feels as though there are no institutions capable of defending them in Peru. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, has expressed concern about the release of Fujimori, stating that any humanitarian release of those responsible for serious human rights violations must be in accordance with international law.
Fujimori is a polarizing figure in Peru, as his policies improved the country’s economy but he also used the military to dissolve Congress and crack down on guerrilla violence. He was accused of plotting two massacres, including one in which 15 residents, including an 8-year-old child, were fatally shot in a poverty-stricken Lima neighborhood. The second massacre involved the kidnapping and killing of nine students and a professor.
Fujimori resigned after leaked videotapes showed his spy chief bribing lawmakers and fled the country in disgrace, eventually being arrested and extradited back to Peru from Chile. Fujimori’s goal was to run for Peru’s presidency again in 2006, but instead, he was put on trial.