Lima, 5 Dec (EFE). – Peru’s Constitutional Court (TC) on Tuesday ordered the release of ex-president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), despite a 2022 ruling to the contrary by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
“This Constitutional Court orders that the National Penitentiary Institute (INPE) and the Director of the Barbadillo Prison (where Fujimori is being held)… organize the immediate release of the favored person, Alberto Fujimori,” reads the TC’s order.
On Friday, a judge in the southern region of Ica declared inissible the first resolution of the Constitutional Court that reinstated Fujimori’s pardon and sent the case back to the TC.
The resolution was signed by 3 of the current 6 of the TC, with the casting vote of the court’s president, Francisco Morales.
Morales stated that the authorities should “proceed to the immediate release” of Fujimori, contrary to two resolutions of the Inter-American Court.
In addition, the resolution “severely onished” the judge of Ica and urged him to “exercise more diligence and zeal in the performance of his duties in the execution of the rulings granting habeas corpus”.
The pardon granted to Fujimori by then-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski on Dec. 24, 2017, led to different interpretations and a consultation for clarification by the Ministry of Justice.
In 2018, the pardon was annulled after the Inter-American Court 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 25 years in prison.
In both cases, state security forces committed serious human rights violations that resulted in the deaths of 25 people.
Last week, hours before the Ica judge’s decision, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expressed concern about the possibility that the TC resolution would lead to Fujimori’s release.
The organization recalled that on April 7, 2022, it “established the reasons why the State should refrain from granting a pardon ‘for humanitarian reasons,’ in accordance with the inter-American standards established in the supervisory resolutions of the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta cases.”
However, in Tuesday’s resolution, the TC stated that the IACHR’s pronouncement was “contrary to the execution of the constitutional ruling in the present case” and argued its “lack of competence.”
The TC maintained that “it is beyond the Court’s jurisdiction to order a State, in the context of monitoring compliance with a judgment, not to execute a judgment of a national court.”
In addition to the resolution, the judges of the court also stated that Fujimori “has already served approximately two-thirds of his sentence, as well as that he is advanced in age (85 years) and his health is in poor condition. EFE dub/mcd/dgp
