Peru’s top court on Tuesday ordered the release of former President Alberto Fujimori from prison where he is serving a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses, defying an order from an international court that called on the South American country to keep him behind bars to keep.
The court, Peru’s Constitutional Court, voted 3-1 to uphold its decision to grant Mr. Fujimori a presidential pardon in 2017; The Inter-American Court of Human Rights had found that the pardon violated the rights of his victims.
Mr Fujimori’s lawyer told reporters that the former president would most likely be released from prison on Wednesday.
Some experts described Tuesday’s decision by Peru’s Supreme Court as an example of institutional decay in a country that has experienced repeated political crises in recent years.
“We had not seen this kind of open defiance from the Peruvian state before, basically saying that it was no big deal if we didn’t comply with our international obligations,” said Pedro Grández, an expert on Peruvian constitutional law.
Ahead of the court’s decision, the Inter-American Court reiterated its decision that Mr. Fujimori should not be released under the 2017 pardon. However, President Dina Boluarte’s center-right government is expected to abide by the Peruvian court’s decision.
In its ruling, the Constitutional Court said that if the international court considers that Peru is violating its international obligations, it should refer the matter to the Organization of American States, the regional body of which the Inter-American Court is a part.
“The body that decides is the Constitutional Court,” said right-wing lawmaker José Cueto after the verdict was announced. “The Inter-American Court of Human Rights can say what it wants and do what it thinks is appropriate, but we don’t have to listen to it,” he added.
The decision was the latest development in the rollercoaster ride surrounding Mr. Fujimori’s detention and came amid a wave of political scandals and concerns about impunity in the country of 33 million people.
Mr. Fujimori, elected three decades ago as an anti-establishment outsider, came to power as hyperinflation devastated Peru’s economy and left-wing rebel groups waged terror campaigns that killed tens of thousands of people.
Two years after his election, Mr. Fujimori, with the support of the military, dissolved Congress, suspended the constitution and began ruling as a dictator.
His term was marked by a brutal government counterinsurgency campaign against leftist guerrillas. Dozens of civilians were victims of extrajudicial killings by death squads that prosecutors say Mr. Fujimori created. In 2000, he unexpectedly resigned by fax from his parents’ home country of Japan after videos were released showing the country’s chief spy paying bribes.
Mr. Fujimori was convicted in 2009 of human rights violations in connection with the extrajudicial killings and kidnappings, which constitute crimes against humanity under international law. He was sentenced by a Peruvian court to more than two decades in prison and served 16 years.
Mr. Fujimori’s family says he suffers from pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable disease. Now 85, he was held in a special prison for Peruvian presidents in Lima along with two other former presidents, Mr. Castillo and Alejandro Toledo. Keiko Fujimori, Mr. Fujimori’s daughter, is an influential opposition leader who narrowly lost last year’s presidential election to Mr. Castillo, as well as two previous presidential runoffs.
In 2017, President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski pardoned Mr. Fujimori ahead of an impeachment vote, which Mr. Kuczynski survived with the support of Mr. Fujimori’s supporters in Congress. The pardon was canceled the following year and Mr. Fujimori was sent back to prison. In 2022, the Constitutional Court reinstated the pardon, but the Inter-American Court ruled against it before Mr. Fujimori could be released. The Peruvian court now claims that the court has no jurisdiction to make this decision.
After the decision, television channels showed a group of Fujimori’s supporters celebrating outside the prison.
“He is very calm, enthusiastic and clinically stable,” Mr. Fujimori’s lawyer, Elio Riera, told reporters after speaking to him. “He is very confident that this mission will be fulfilled.”
Carlos Rivera, a lawyer representing victims of the massacres that Mr. Fujimori was found guilty of committing, said the tribunal’s position had placed the country “in a scenario of non-compliance with judgments of an international organization.”
Dino Carlos Caro, professor of law at the University of Salamanca, wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Why the fear of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights? The Court fulfills a fundamental role in protecting human rights, but like any body, any power, it has limits.”
In 2018, the International Court of Justice outlined a path for Mr. Fujimori to seek a pardon consistent with international law: he had to publicly apologize to his victims and make civil reparations.
“While the court opened the door to a new, legal pardon, Fujimori, his defense and his family never wanted to cross it,” Mr. Rivera said.