Top Peruvian court orders release of jailed former president on humanitarian grounds

Peru’s top constitutional court ruled on Thursday that former President Alberto Fujimori should be freed from prison, where he was previously sentenced to serve 25 years in prison for human rights violations and corruption.  

The 83-year-old Andean leader was previously pardoned on Christmas Eve in 2017, but the constitutional court overturned that decision after popular backlash. Thursday’s decision puts the pardon back in place following the appointment of judges who were more sympathetic to the former president’s plight, Reuters reported.

According to remarks made by Judge Eloy Espinosa-Saldaña on Canal N, although the 4-3 ruling passed on Thursday, it remained unclear when Fujimori could leave custody or if new legal challenges could halt the decision.

Fujimori governed Peru between 1990 and 2000 and is considered a highly controversial figure in Peru today. The conservative lawmaker introduced free-market reforms in his first term and ended a period of hyperinflation before initiating a bloody military campaign against the terrorist group Shining Path – for which he was ultimately accused of human rights abuses.

He resigned from the presidency in 2000, after a series of videos showed his intelligence chief bribing Peruvian politicians in cash, and flew to Japan where he remained in exile until 2005 when he flew to Chile where he was arrested and later extradited to Peru where he was successfully prosecuted and finally sentenced in 2009.

Fujimori’s allies include his daughter Keiko Fujimori – who has run for president three times – and have long said that the former president deserves a humanitarian pardon due to his poor health and old age.