2023-12-07 15:16:46
The former president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori, left the prison on Wednesday where he was serving a 25-year sentence for a massacre during his government three decades ago, after the restitution of a controversial humanitarian pardon despite the opposition of human rights organizations and relatives of the victims.
With a mask over his mouth, gray hair and a dark jacket, Fujimori hugged his children Keiko and Kenji who were waiting for him and got into a van at the exit door of the prison.
The former president left the prison with a cannula connected to his nose and carrying a small oxygen cylinder. According to his doctors and family, Fujimori suffered from stomach ulcers, hypertension and had operations for cancer of the tongue.
According to those close to Fujimori’s family, the former leader will live at his eldest daughter Keiko’s house, located in a residential neighborhood with the house cordoned off by dozens of police officers.
Fujimori, 85, left the cell of a police base located in a poor neighborhood of Lima where he remained for 16 years, amid cheers from dozens of his followers who consider him a hero who saved Peru from terrorism and economic collapse.
“Thankful to God because it was time for this injustice against Fujimori to end. Thanks to him our country is on its feet,” said Catalina Ponce outside the prison, where some people were celebrating Fujimori’s departure, in the middle of dancing, chants and banners with his photograph.
His critics rejected the restitution of the pardon, along with the relatives of victims, left-wing legislators and human rights defenders, who warned that forgiveness leads to a “serious breach” of international commitments, in a situation that once again polarizes the South American country. .
“The pardon is an international shame,” said Gisela Ortiz, who was culture minister in 2021 and whose brother was one of the victims of the massacres, during a protest against the pardon in front of the Palace of Justice on Tuesday night.
The release occurred despite the fact that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Inter-American Court) on Tuesday sent a new exhortation to the country to refrain from executing the pardon, which was restored by the Constitutional Court after a dizzying legal saga regarding the case.
The Inter-American Court asked to stop the pardon until the organization has “all the necessary elements to analyze whether said decision complies with the conditions” required by the benefit.
The decision to open the prison for Fujimori took several hours and was in the hands of the National Penitentiary Institute that depends on the Government of President Dina Boluarte, whose popularity fell to single digits to its lowest level in a year of administration, after the dismissal of his predecessor Pedro Castillo.
Fractured country
The pardon for former President Fujimori does not free him from paying some 57 million soles (about $15 million) in debt for civil reparations for corruption cases, the anti-corruption attorney’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.
The attorney general’s office stated that the amount cannot be collected through the seizure of his “life pension” because Fujimori gave up collecting it as former president and does not have any assets or property registered in his name.
The pardon was granted by former president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski on Christmas 2017, but was annulled or suspended several times by lower courts due to pressure from the Inter-American Court and the families of abuse victims.
Fujimori’s release occurs when the country is going through new political turbulence, after the Attorney General constitutionally denounced President Boluarte before Congress, for the dozens of deaths during anti-government protests at the end of last year and the beginning of 2023.
Fujimori, who dedicated himself to gardening and painting in prison, leaves two other former presidents in prison: Alejandro Toledo, investigated for corruption, and Castillo accused of rebellion after illegally trying to dissolve Congress.
The former leader was convicted of having been the direct perpetrator of the massacre of 25 people in the Barrios Altos cases in 1991 and the La Cantuta University in 1992, which occurred while his Government was fighting against the leftist Shining Path guerrilla.
The Fujimori family had a strong influence and political relevance in the last three decades in the country.
Keiko, his political heir, expects to face trial for money laundering for allegedly receiving illegal campaign contributions from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.
The politician, who leads a party that has the leading opposition force in Congress, lost a tight presidential election in 2021 against the now dismissed former president Castillo, in his third attempt to come to power.
Source: NA
#Peruvian #president #Fujimori #left #prison #controversial #pardon #Cuyos #diary