After three days of intense debates between lawyers, activists and the Peruvian Justice itself, a magistrate from the town of Ica decided to declare inadmissible a ruling by the Constitutional Court of Peru, which ordered the release of former president Alberto Fujimori. The IACHR itself expressed, hours before, its concern about a possible release of the former president, sentenced to 25 years in prison for crimes against humanity.
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Alberto Fujimori will continue in prison, at least for now. The judge of the First Preparatory Investigation Court of Ica, Fernando Fernández, did not give way to the second attempt by the Constitutional Court (TC) of Peru to grant the freedom of the former president.
Hours earlier, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) had expressed its concern about the actions of the Constitutional Court.
#Peru: #IACHR expresses concern about the recent decision of the @TC_Peru that could lead to the release of Alberto Fujimori. In the Resolution of April 7, 2022, @CorteIDH established the reasons why the State should refrain from granting a pardon “for reasons…
— IACHR – IACHR (@CIDH) December 1, 2023
The magistrate declared inadmissible the execution of the ruling of the TC, of March 17, 2022, which restored the pardon in favor of Fujimori. In his ruling, he makes it clear that he does not have the jurisdiction to carry out the execution of a sentence that was not estimated in his office. Therefore he returned the file to the Constitutional Court.
He also recalled that there are provisions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Inter-American Court) that urge the Peruvian State to “adopt as a provisional measure to refrain from executing the order of the Constitutional Court to order the freedom of the favored Alberto Fujimori.”
#THE LAST First Preparatory Investigation Court of Ica declares inadmissible the execution of sentence No. 78-2022, dated March 17, 2022, specifically the freedom of Alberto Fujimori, by his office because the habeas corpus claim has not been upheld pic.twitter.com/9U64AxfLKh
— Judicial Branch of Peru (@Poder_Judicial_) December 1, 2023
Judicial framework of the Fujimori case
The judicial entanglement in which they find themselves in Peru, due to the case of Alberto Fujimori, stems from the pardon granted by the then president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, in December 2017, which even brought him legal problems. He received a wave of criticism because former President Fujimori had been serving, since 2009, a 25-year prison sentence for being the intellectual author of the massacres committed in Barrios Altos and La Cantuta, by the death squad known as ‘Grupo Colina’.
But the pardon could not be executed. By October 2018, the Supreme Preparatory Investigation Court blocked this possibility. Furthermore, in May of that year, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Inter-American Court) asked the State to guarantee the administration of justice for the victims of the Barrios Alto and La Cantuta cases, for which he was convicted. The victims’ relatives alerted the organization of the pardon, as a failure to comply with its recommendations.
Fujimori’s defense presented a Habeas Corpus to obtain the freedom of his client, but they were denied in the first and second instance.
The case escalates to the highest body of justice, the Constitutional Court of Peru, and on March 17, 2022, with the deciding vote of the then president of the body, Augusto Ferrero, the origin of Habeas Corpus is declared, annulling the previous rulings and providing the immediate release of Fujimori.
It is the Inter-American Court that stops the release of the former president, stating that Peru must refrain from executing any pardon. This week, the TC again gave way to the release of Fujimori, after a request for clarification presented by the former president’s defense.
📢 Important decision of the First Preparatory Investigation Court of Ica!
We welcome the decision on the inadmissibility of the execution of the sentence that sought to free Alberto Fujimori.
One more step towards justice and respect for human rights. ⚖✊ pic.twitter.com/bbG2DRLsMX
— Association for Human Rights – APRODEH (@Aprodeh) December 1, 2023
“We must proceed to comply with the previous sentence,” said Francisco Morales, current president of the TC, on Wednesday, November 29, mentioning that all legal obstacles to the release of the former president were removed.
Three days later, Judge Fernández blocked this new attempt to free Fujimori and returned the case to the TC.
The most expensive prisoner in Peru
Fujimori has been in prison since 2009, after being extradited from Chile and convicted of crimes against humanity. Although he has been released from prison for medical reasons, the former president is the most difficult prisoner to keep in Peru.
Held in the Barbadillo prison in Lima, Alberto Fujimori is not within four walls. It has a library, a painting workshop and even a garden. According to BBC publication“in 2020 alone, the Government invested about $172,000, a figure 57 times greater than the amount it allocated individually for the rest of the prisoners in other common penitentiaries.”
Now, it’s not just him who could be in prison. His daughter and his former presidential candidate, Keiko Fujimori, could face a 30-year sentence. This December 1, Judge Víctor Zúñiga began the criminal process against him for alleged money laundering, derived from the alleged illegal contributions to his 2011 and 2016 electoral campaigns.
According to the tax theory, the construction company Odebrecht would have made illegal contributions to his presidential campaigns. The case, called ‘Cocktails’, -because six luxurious dinners were held as a cover for the alleged illegal financing, according to the prosecutor’s office-, also includes the rest of the members of the leadership of the Fujimori Popular Force party, with a total of 30 accused. . In June, the former president’s daughter already received precautionary measures such as a ban on leaving the country, within this case.
With AP, EFE and local media
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