Former Peruvian President, Alberto Fujimori, Freed from Prison
Alberto Fujimori, Peru's ex-President, released from prison as per official court documents
Former President Alberto Fujimori of Peru was released from prison this past Wednesday, prior to completing his sentence for permitting the activities of a death squad in his country, as per court records and images of the frail former leader outside a Lima prison. The Constitutional Court of Peru had issued an order on Tuesday for Fujimori's immediate release, reinstating a medical pardon granted to him in 2017 by then-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski on humanitarian grounds. However, the pardon was revoked by the country's Supreme Court a year later, leading to Fujimori's return to prison.
Fujimori, the son of Japanese immigrants, was a highly controversial figure both during and after his 1990-2000 presidency, which ended due to a bribery scandal. Despite being acknowledged for quelling the Shining Path terrorists and implementing strict economic measures to control hyperinflation, his authoritarian tendencies and use of security forces to suppress dissent were well-documented.
In 2009, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a special supreme court tribunal for overseeing a death squad that was responsible for the deaths of civilians.
At the time of his pardon, Kuczynski's office stated that Fujimori "is suffering from a progressive, degenerative, and incurable disease."
Fujimori, 79, made a surprise appearance in a video from his hospital bed to express his gratitude to President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski for the humanitarian pardon. He acknowledged that his government had both supporters and critics, and asked for forgiveness from those he had disappointed.
Fujimori's 2017 pardon sparked two nights of intense protests in Lima, fueled by outrage over his involvement in authorizing a death squad responsible for the extrajudicial execution and enforced disappearances of multiple individuals in Lima. According to Human Rights Watch, these charges included the murder of 15 people in the Barrios Altos district, as well as the abduction and killing of nine students, a teacher, and two others from La Cantuta University.
Aside from the charges related to death squads, Fujimori was also convicted in other trials for unlawfully entering the home of a former spy chief to steal videos, embezzling funds from the government treasury to pay the spy chief, and unlawfully authorizing wiretaps and bribing congressmen and journalists.
