The Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori, 85, cherishes freedom after the decision of the Constitutional Court (TC) of his country, which has ordered the government and the director of the Barbadillo prison “immediate freedom, under responsibility.” Since 2007, the former president has been serving a 25-year prison sentence for a series of crimes, including massacres, kidnappings, corruption and usurpation of functions. Three former Peruvian presidents coexist today in the Barbadillo prison: the coup leader Pedro Castillo; Alejandro Toledo, accused of corruption and Fujimori himself. They are his only tenants, waiting for another president, Ollanta Humala, whose process advances inexorably.
The Constitutional Court has declared founded the appeal for reconsideration filed to comply with the sentence issued in 2022, while sternly warning the judge who did not previously release Fujimori.
“Due to the procedures at the INPE (National Penitentiary Institute), Mr. Fujimori would be released tomorrow (Wednesday). He is very calm, enthusiastic and clinically stable. He is very hopeful in the fulfillment of this mandate,” reacted his defense lawyer, Elio Riera. .
The decision of the Constitutional Court, however, collides head-on with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), which opposes this release and assures that a pardon is not viable. The clash of judicial institutions already occurred last year, when the Inter-American Court argued that the established humanitarian pardon could not be carried out.
The TC intends to end a judicial dispute that dates back to 2017, when the then president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, decreed a humanitarian pardon for the father of his rival in the elections, Keiko Fujimori. The pardon was later revoked by the Supreme Court, so the dictator was taken back to prison after spending 113 days in a hospital.
The ball is now in the court of President Dina Boluarte, who will abide by one decision or another. Her government depends on the parliamentary support of the Fujimori group in Congress.
“This is an insult to the memory of the victims and their families and an affront against the inter-American human rights system by ignoring the mandate of the Court, which prohibited this pardon for being part of a political negotiation,” warned moderate parliamentarian Flor Pablo Medina.
Keiko and Kenji, Fujimori’s two sons, also politicians, are reunited despite their differences awaiting events. Both also have problems with the law: Keiko is facing a corruption trial that could put her back in jail, and Kenji is sentenced to four years in prison for a crime of influence peddling.
