Fujimori Pardon under Analysis by Regional Court

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, IACHR, will hold a hearing regarding the pardon of former Peruvian president, Alberto Fujimori, on February 2nd.

The hearing will analyze whether or not the Peruvian government is following through with the IACHR indictment of Alberto Fujimori.

The IACHR, a regional court under the Organization of the American States, OAS, indicted Fujimori on two counts of “crimes against humanity” for orchestrating the army squad killing of 15 people, known as the Barrios Altos massacre.

“This does not meet the fundamental legal requirements, nor was it carried through with an independent, transparent or legal evaluation committee,” IACHR said of the pardon on its original ruling.

United Nations consultants, Peruvian human rights organizations, as well as family members of victims all publically echoed the IACHR statement saying since the pardon approved stating the case “does not meet the legal requirements for a pardon.”

He was also found guilty by the IACHR of kidnapping journalist Gustavo Gorriti and businessman Samuel Dyer, and for directing the killings of nine students and one professor from the Enrique Guzman and Valle National University.

Next months hearing will give families of Fujimori victims the opportunity to make the claim that the pardon should be reversed. Fujimori, for his part, will be represented by Miguel Perez Arroyo. The Peruvian government has until Friday to name its defense.

Fujimori had been serving a 25-year sentence for these crimes since 2009 until current president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski pardoned him on Dec. 24, supposedly on “humanitarian” grounds, claiming Fujimori is too ill to remain in prison.

In addition to his convicted crimes, Fujimori has been linked to forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in the war against insurgent groups Shining Path and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. Fujimori is accused of forced sterilizations affecting 300,000 women between 1996 and 2000.

Kuczynski, granted Fujimori a “humanitarian pardon” for medical reasons – low blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat. The president added that the sentence was “excessive” for the former president’s convicted crimes.

The presidential pardon came just after Congress narrowly voted to not impeach Kuczynski for allegedly receiving nearly US$800,000 in kickbacks from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. The pardon and failed impeachment are widely seen as a political maneuver by Fujimori’s son, Kenji, himself a current Congress member, to salvage Kuczynski so the president could pardon his father in return.

More than 5,000 Peruvians protested the pardon in Lima and subsequent impunity.

Organized protests are scheduled for tomorrow against Kuczynski and Fujimori.