In a report before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Peru defended the legality of the controversial humanitarian pardon for which former president Alberto Fujimori, who was imprisoned for the murder of 25 Peruvians during his government, was released last December.
“Our country has acted in accordance with its internal and external legal framework and has followed the procedures established for the Fujimori case,” Justice Minister Eduardo Arana said at a conference on Tuesday. He added that Peru demands respect for its “national and international legal sovereignty.”
The government's position is opposite to that of the relatives of the 25 murdered by the military in 1991 and 1992 while Fujimori was president (1990-2000) and for which the former president was sentenced as the intellectual author to 25 years in prison. Fujimori served 16 years in prison and was later pardoned.
The 85-year-old former president did not repent for his crimes nor pay civil reparations. Fujimori has three other convictions for corruption and owes around 15 million dollars to the Public Treasury, according to the Attorney General's Office specialized in corruption crimes.
The Inter-American Court, the highest Latin American court on human rights and to which Peru is subject, asked the government of Peruvian President Dina Boluarte in December not to execute an order from the Constitutional Court to release Fujimori, in which it recognized the humanitarian pardon. which was granted seven years ago and which was in legal dispute.
The government released Fujimori on December 6 and the Inter-American Court warned Peru that it was in contempt before the international court. He asked for a report to explain the release of the former president with legal arguments.
Fujimori achieved his freedom after the Constitutional Court revived a humanitarian presidential pardon granted in 2017 by then-president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-2018). Experts interpreted that Kuczynski granted the pardon to gain parliamentary support for his weak government from legislators from the Fujimori party.
The pardon was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2018.
Fujimori fled to Japan in 2000, where he resigned after various corruption scandals, including the dissemination of a video in which his administration's spy chief was observed bribing opposition congressmen. In 2005, he traveled to Chile where he was arrested and extradited to Peru in 2007.
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