Supporters of Alberto Fujimori meet this week in Barbadillo prison (Lima). SEBASTIAN CASTANEDA (Portal)
Three days after a heated debate about the possible release of Alberto Fujimori, Judge Fernando Vicente Fernández Tapia decided not to carry out his release. Hours before the judge’s decision, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) had expressed “concern” that the Constitutional Court’s recent decision could lead to the release of the former Peruvian president.
The alleged release of Fujimori has shocked the country again. The Constitutional Court issued a five-page order that its authorities said would allow the Orange patriarch, sentenced to 25 years in prison for crimes against humanity in 2009, to leave Barbadillo prison in Lima. This is a clarification complaint – a mechanism to clarify a concept or correct an error in sentences – filed by the Attorney General of Justice and Fujimori’s defense attorney following a judgment of the TC dated March 17, 2022, which has the effect of an order restored that Fujimori was granted a humanitarian pardon in 2017.
However, in April 2022, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that the Peruvian state should refrain from implementing the provisions of the Constitutional Court. The IACHR is a supranational judicial body and Peru is a state party, therefore it has an international obligation to abide by its measure. However, both the president of the TC, Francisco Morales Saravia, and its vice president, Luz Pacheco, had explained that the release took place because “the sentences imposed by their institution are a matter of judgment and cannot be annulled.”
In addition, Pacheco assured that there are no consequences for not complying with the rulings of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, since only a minority adheres to them. “Only 15% of the Court’s rulings are implemented. In other words, states often do not comply because they believe that this decision exceeds their jurisdiction,” he said. The truth is that the Constitutional Court transferred all responsibility to the execution judge Fernández Tapia of the first preparatory court of inquiry of Ica so that he could proceed according to “his powers”. That is, apply the TC’s decision granting habeas corpus or follow the IACHR’s guidelines. The judge chose this second option.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights had, in a statement, reminded the Peruvian state of the validity of its decision not to enforce the release of Alberto Fujimori, considered the intellectual author of the massacres in Barrios Altos and La Cantuta during his government in the 1990s.
On the other hand, the Center for Justice and International Law also criticized the constitutional court’s lack of clarity. “He failed to make a clear and unambiguous statement. The President of the TC has spoken in the media and has tried to clarify this ambiguity, pointing out that “the release of Fujimori is indeed moving forward” and that “it is up to the authorities of the National Penitentiary Institute to proceed”, but the concrete The fact is that this is not provided for in his decision.”
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