Peru’s ex-President, Alberto Fujimori, was granted release from prison on humanitarian grounds on Wednesday, disregarding a plea from a regional human rights court to postpone the decision. At the age of 85, Fujimori had been serving a 25-year sentence related to the orchestrated killings of 25 individuals by death squads during the 1990s. While Peru’s constitutional court mandated his instant release on Tuesday, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights had urged a deferment to examine the verdict.
Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who governed from 1990 to 2000, was released from prison in 2023. He had been sentenced in 2009 on charges of human rights abuses, particularly for orchestrating the killings of 25 individuals while combating the Shining Path communist rebels. Despite the Inter-American Court of Human Rights urging a delay in his release, Peru’s Constitutional Court ruled in favor of his immediate release on humanitarian grounds. Fujimori, aged 85 and in poor health, left the prison wearing a face mask and receiving supplemental oxygen, accompanied by family members. The court cited a humanitarian pardon granted in 2017 and upheld in 2022, considering Fujimori’s advanced age, health, and the violation of his fundamental right to freedom. on humanitarian grounds
After the Constitutional Court issued its latest ruling, the president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Ricardo Pérez Manrique, in a resolution asked for the delay of Fujimori’s release in order to “guarantee the right of access to justice” of the 25 people who were murdered in two massacres.
“We live in an orphanhood because we do not have institutions of any kind capable of defending us,” Gisela Ortiz, sister of one of the victims for whom Fujimori was convicted, told The Associated Press. “Peru gives the image of a country where the rights of victims are not guaranteed and where human rights issues have no importance.”