Development: On 3 October Peru’s supreme court (CSJR) annulled the presidential pardon issued last year in favour of disgraced former president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) and ordered him to return to prison to serve out the rest of his 25-year sentence for human rights violations.
Significance: The decision by the CSJR has been heavily criticised by the main right-wing opposition Fuerza Popular (FP, Fujimoristas) party, which said that it was promoted by Fujimori’s political detractors. Keiko Fujimori, Alberto’s daughter and the FP’s main leader, said that the party would do everything within its power to revert the CSJR ruling, raising concerns that the FP will once again resort to an intransigent and obstructionist stance that could derail the judicial and political reform process being advanced by the government led by President Martín Vizcarra.
- Alberto Fujimori was convicted in 2009 for a series of human rights violations committed by his government. The elderly Fujimori (80) was granted a presidential pardon by President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-March 2018) in December last year on humanitarian grounds. However, there have long been suspicions that the pardon formed part of a political deal struck between Kuczynski and Kenji Fujimori, Alberto’s son and FP national deputy, under which Kuczynski avoided impeachment by the FP-controlled national congress.
- The pardon was rejected by the groups that represent the victims of the human rights violations committed by the Fujimori government and they appealed against it in the courts. They argued that the pardon process was plagued by irregularities and that it violated international law, in particular the American Convention on Human Rights, which protects the rights of victims of human rights violations to justice and compensation. Yesterday the CSJR agreed with the victims’ groups. Justice Hugo Núñez Julca declared the pardon null and ordered Alberto Fujimori to be arrested and returned to prison.
- The CJSR ruling produced an immediate response from the Fujimori family and the FP. Kenji said that he would appeal against the ruling. But Keiko went further. In emotional declarations to the local press, the FP leader denounced the ruling as an “unfair persecution” of her father by his “political enemies”. Keiko also said that she and the FP would now launch a “legal and political battle” against her father’s imprisonment.
Looking Ahead: The annulment of the pardon coincided yesterday with the approval in the national congress of the four political and judicial reforms proposed by President Vizcarra, which are aimed at addressing the deep crisis affecting Peru’s judiciary and congress, and which are now to be subjected to a national referendum. The FP is largely opposed to the reforms but was forced into approving them following Vizcarra’s threat to dissolve congress otherwise. The worry now is that the FP will once again adopt an intransigent stance against the reform drive in response to the annulment of the pardon.
