Former Peruvian President Fujimori Ordered to be Released from Prison
Peru’s constitutional court ordered the immediate release of former President Alberto Fujimori on Tuesday. Fujimori, 85, has been serving a 25-year sentence in connection with the death squad slayings of 25 Peruvians in the 1990s.
The court ruled in favor of a 2017 pardon that granted the former leader a release on humanitarian grounds, but was later annulled. In a resolution seen by The Associated Press, the court instructed the state prisons agency to immediately release Fujimori “on the same day.”
Fujimori was sentenced in 2009 to 25 years in prison on charges of human rights abuses. He was accused of being the mastermind behind the slayings of 25 Peruvians by a military death squad during his administration from 1990 to 2000, while the government fought the Shining Path communist rebels.
Fujimori’s 2017 pardon, granted by then-President Pablo Kuczynski, was annulled under pressure from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The status of the pardon has been the subject of legal wrangling since then.
The constitutional court had previously ordered a lower court in the southern city of Ica to release Fujimori, but that court declined to do so, arguing last Friday that it lacked the authority. The matter was then returned to the constitutional court.
The latest decision by the constitutional court has sparked controversy and debate in Peru, with concerns raised about Fujimori’s release considering his past actions and human rights abuses attributed to his administration. The release of the former president raises questions about accountability and justice in the country’s political landscape.