Pardon now takes effect
Peru’s ex-president Fujimori is free again
December 7, 2023, 6:37 a.m
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
The former Peruvian president is imprisoned for crimes against humanity. His successor issued a pardon for Alberto Fujimori, but revoked it after massive protests among the population. Ultimately, the Constitutional Court decides – but only many years later.
Following an order from the Constitutional Court, former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who was sentenced to a long prison sentence, has been released early from prison. According to a report, the 85-year-old left Barbadillo prison in the east of the capital Lima, where he had been serving a sentence for crimes against humanity since 2009, in a gray van.
Fujimori was welcomed by his daughter Keiko and his son Kenji, both of whom had repeatedly called for their father’s release. “Our hearts are overflowing with joy because this man has been unjustly imprisoned,” said a supporter of Fujimori who was waiting outside the prison.
A few days ago, the Constitutional Court reinstated Fujimori’s pardon, which the then Peruvian President Pablo Kuczynski had issued in 2017 – but which was revoked in 2018 after massive protests.
Fujimori ruled Peru with a heavy hand from 1990 to 2000 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2007 for crimes against humanity. Among other things, it was about massacres that were carried out by death squads in the early 1990s in the fight against the Shining Path guerrilla organization.
The former president repeatedly suffers from breathing difficulties and neurological problems as well as high blood pressure. He has been transferred from prison to hospital several times.