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Inter-American Court asks Peru to suspend approval of law that limits trials and sentences for crimes against humanity

Inter-American Court asks Peru to suspend approval of law that limits trials and sentences for crimes against humanity

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights asked Peru on Thursday to “immediately suspend the processing” of a bill that, if approved, will prevent those who committed crimes before 2002 from being tried and sentenced for crimes against humanity and war crimes, including to the former president Alberto Fujimori.

The more high regional court on human rights indicated in a statement that the suspension of the process should occur until that Court has “all the necessary elements” to rule on the impact that this bill will have on an emblematic case in Peru known as Barrios Altos and La Cantuta, so called. by the name of the Lima areas where the events occurred.

For this case, former President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) served 17 years in prison—even though he was sentenced to 25—as mediator in the murder of 25 Peruvians between 1991 and 1992, a crime that was also classified by the Peruvian Supreme Court as “against humanity.”

The relatives of the victims of the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta case asked the Inter-American Court to order Peru to interrupt the process of approving the controversial law.

Peru and the victims’ relatives are summoned to a court hearing on Monday, June 17, for the high court to analyze what measures it can take to prevent the possible law from affecting the victims’ right to justice.

The legislative initiative, approved in the first vote last week, has also been questioned by the prosecutor’s office, which warned that 550 victims, most of them indigenous farmers, will not obtain justice if Congress approves the project.

Peru experienced an internal armed conflict with thousands of deaths between 1980 and 2000, which led to dozens of investigations and judicial proceedings against dozens of soldiers for committing serious crimes.

The prosecutor’s office indicated in a statement that the bill is “unconstitutional” and incompatible with jurisprudence on human rights and international law, since “States cannot issue provisions of amnesty, prescription or exclusion of criminal responsibility.”

“The aforementioned bill is legally unfeasible, since criminal action and punishment for crimes against humanity and war crimes are imprescriptible, which would generate impunity and violation of the right to the truth of the injured parties and their families. “said the prosecution.

According to the prosecutor’s office, the bill would also favor former President Fujimori, 85 years old, who is being tried for the murder of six peasants, which occurred in 1992, in the district of Pativilca, north of Lima. The prosecution charges Fujimori with direct responsibility for the deaths – among them those of a 17-year-old teenager – carried out with his knowledge by soldiers who extrajudicially murdered alleged members of the Shining Path terrorist group, and requests 25 years in prison for the former president. .

A recent report by the coordinating prosecutor for human rights indicated that the legislative initiative would cause some 600 cases, including investigations and judicial processes, to be archived or concluded by statute of limitations, that is, criminal responsibility would be extinguished due to the passage of time and the cases would go unpunished.

The tax investigations or trials that would be affected by the initiative refer to massacres, torture, sexual violations and forced disappearances – especially of indigenous peasants from the Andes and the Amazon – in which dozens of soldiers from the army and navy are accused. war.

The prosecutor’s report indicates that among those murdered were pregnant women, teenagers, children and even babies.

The controversial bill advanced last week with the votes of the Fuerza Popular party, led by Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), also by the votes of retired military personnel and conservative legislators.

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