(Lima) Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) was released on Wednesday from prison where he had been serving a 25-year sentence since 2009 for crimes against humanity, after a decision the day before by the Constitutional Court.
Mr. Fujimori, wearing a black jacket, left Barbadillo prison, east of Lima, at 6:29 p.m. local time (6:29 p.m. Eastern time) in a gray van that crashed slowly the crowd of his supporters came to welcome him, according to AFP journalists.
His daughter Keiko, three times an unsuccessful candidate in the second round of the presidential election, and his son Kenji, a businessman, who had repeatedly called for their father’s release, were at his side.
“My father’s health is fragile. The most important thing is to take care of him and make him recover little by little. We know that the best therapy is the love of one’s family,” his daughter Keiko told the press outside her home.
Mr. Fujimori, 85, suffers recurrently from respiratory and neurological problems, including facial paralysis.
On Tuesday, the Constitutional Court ordered the immediate release of the controversial former president, restoring a pardon granted in 2017 and which was revoked two years later by the Supreme Court.
“Slap”
For Cardinal Pedro Barreto, the pardon granted to Mr. Fujimori is a “slap in the face”. “In this country, when there is a judicial sentence, it is carried out until the last day, there is no privilege for anyone,” he lambasted.
The former strongman of Peru was found guilty of the deaths of 25 people in two massacres carried out by an army commando as part of what had been called the war against terrorism (1980-2000) by the guerrillas of ‘leftmost.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights on Wednesday called in vain for Peru to “refrain from executing” the decision of the Constitutional Court “until the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has all the elements necessary to analyze whether this decision respects the conditions” of its previous judgments.
But the government of President Dina Boluarte authorized his release.
Mr. Fujimori “has served approximately two thirds of his sentence”, the Constitutional Court justified itself, in addition to putting forward humanitarian arguments.
The Peruvian Association for Human Rights condemned this decision, saying it was a snub to the Inter-American Court.
The Peruvian Minister of Foreign Affairs assured him that Lima reaffirmed “its commitment to the system of promotion and protection of human rights, at the regional and universal levels”.
Grace restored
The Constitutional Court had already ordered in March 2022 the release of Mr. Fujimori, but the Inter-American Court of Human Rights had asked the State to “refrain from executing” this decision. The country, then led by left-wing President Pedro Castillo, complied.
Alberto Fujimori ruled Peru with an iron fist, but in the face of growing opposition, he fled in November 2000 to Japan, where his family is from.
It was by fax that he then announced that he was renouncing his mandate. Then extradited from Chile in 2007, he was convicted and imprisoned two years later.
Despite the request for “forgiveness” made in 2017 for the acts committed by his government, Alberto Fujimori divided Peruvians as few politicians have done in the history of the Andean country of 32 million inhabitants.
For some, the man nicknamed “El Chino” (the Chinese) is the man who boosted the economic growth of the country through his ultraliberal policies, and successfully fought the guerrillas of the Shining Path (Maoist) and the Movement revolutionary Tupac Amaru (Guevarist).
Others especially remember the corruption scandals and his authoritarian methods, which landed him behind bars for having ordered two massacres perpetrated by a death squad in 1991-1992, as part of the fight against the Path. luminous.
We “make fun of the families and the victims,” lamented to AFP Gladys Rubina, sister of one of the victims of the massacres for which Mr. Fujimori was convicted.
“The man never asked us for forgiveness and here he walks out, as if nothing had happened.”
“I only have confidence in the justice of the Inter-American Court,” she said.