Today, Peru’s national prisons institute is expected to decide where former President Alberto Fujimori is to serve out the remainder of his 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity.
Fujimori, 80, is expected to return to prison this week, following a medical report issued by a court-appointed medical board. Fujimori’s health is stable, according to the report, and he only requires outpatient care for hypertension and ailments that are not life threatening.
On Christmas Eve 2017, then-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski granted a pardon to Fujimori, who was serving his prison sentence at the police special operations headquarters (Diroes) in east Lima. The pardon not only angered human rights activists but led to several cabinet resignations and a majority in Congress to seek ways to oust Kuczynski, leading to his resignation four months later.
Ten months after the pardon, in October 2018, in an appeal filed by the families of victims, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that the pardon should be revised by the Peruvian courts because of the nature of the crimes — the deathsquad murders known as La Cantuta and Barrios Altos. Peru’s Supreme Court then ruled that the pardon was invalid and Fujimori had to return to prison to serve the full term of his sentence. Fujimori immediately checked into the Centenario clinic and has been in the intensive care unit for the past three months.
President Martin Vizcarra has suggested that, because of his age, Fujimori be allowed to serve the sentence under house arrest. The sentiment is echoed by the newly-elected head of the Magistrates’ Control Office (OCMA), Vicente Walde.
This decision, however, could open a stream of appeals for house arrest, including from Abimael Guzman, 84, founder of the Shining Path movement that racked the county in violence for 20 years, and eventually from Fujimori’s spy chief, Vladimir Montesinos, 73, whose legacy of trolling and fake news continues today.
“The most probable alternative,” said Carlos Rivera of the legal defense institute, IDL, to Andina news, “is for him to return to the Diroes, because the conditions of treatment and in terms of physical space that Alberto Fujimori had there were optimal.” Fujimori was in a private suite, with unlimited visitor privileges.
Fujimori continues to owe the State 27 million soles (S/ 51 mn, with interest) for civil remedy. He also is one of the defendants in the ongoing hearings of the Pativilca or Santa case, for authorizing the murder of six farmers by the Colina military death squad in 1992.
mr alberto Fujimori was one of the best presidents Peru ever had .Terrorism disappeared in his years of governancy
Everybody KNOWS that ONLY communists have “Human Rights”…..so, if you kill Communists you have to go to prison.
Never mind that when the man took over, there was hyperinflation, a HOT war with Ecuador, Maoist Sendero Luminoso and Marxist MRTA Terrorists massacring Shipibos in the jungle and other ‘non-combatants’ in the mountains, kidnappings, mass rapes, as well as blowing things up all over Perú…..and when he left….there was NONE of that. His financial reforms are still in place today, making Perú a reasonably stable island of financial calm. The Peace Accord with Ecuador is still in effect and working well.
This is ‘the way’ in Perú: Punish the man who saved the country, because International Communist Supporters like HRW, Amnesty International, etc…..SAY SO. Sad.
Good riddance to fujimori assassin .
Viva Antauro Humala !
I am Proud to be Peruvian.