1 of 1 Undated picture of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori Photo: AFP Undated picture of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori Photo: AFP
Peru’s Constitutional Court has reinstated former President Alberto Fujimori’s pardon, a promise previously canceled after opposition from human rights groups, its president, Francisco Morales, said on Wednesday.
Fujimori, 85, is serving a 25year prison sentence for human rights violations and corruption.
“Alberto Fujimori must be released according to the decision of the Constitutional Court,” Morales said in an interview with local radio station RPP, referring to a recent ruling by the highest court.
The former president was convicted as the direct author of the massacre of 25 people in the Barrios Altos cases in 1991 and at the University of La Cantuta in 1992, when his government was fighting the leftwing Shining Path guerrillas.
Fujimori, who ruled Peru between 1990 and 2000, is a highly polarizing figure. His political legacy lives on in the rightwing Força Popular party, owned by his daughter Keiko, which lost a close presidential election in 2021 to former President Pedro Castillo, who was eventually impeached.