(EFE).- The Constitutional Court of Peru ordered this Tuesday the release of former president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), despite the fact that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IDH Court) ordered the opposite last year.
“This Constitutional Court orders that the National Penitentiary Institute (INPE) and the director of the Barbadillo Prison (where he remains imprisoned), on the same day, order the immediate release of the favored person, Alberto Fujimori,” reads an order from the TC.
The resolution, which was signed by three of the current six members of the TC, with the casting vote of the president of the organization, Francisco Morales, declared “the appeal for reconsideration was founded in the end of the direct and immediate execution of the sentence of 12 last March, relapse in the present process”.
Last Friday, a court in the southern region of Ica declared inadmissible a first resolution of the Constitutional Court that restored Fujimori’s pardon and returned the case to the TC.
The resolution declared “the appeal for reconsideration was founded in the extreme of the direct and immediate execution of the sentence of last March 12, relapsed in the present process”
The president of the highest court, Francisco Morales, had stated that the authorities should “proceed to the immediate release” of Fujimori, contrary to two resolutions issued by the Inter-American Court.
“The previous sentence must be complied with,” Morales declared when clarifying an order from the TC that declared inadmissible a consultation by the Ministry of Justice on the pardon granted to Fujimori in 2017 by then-president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and that had given rise to different interpretations.
Lawyer Fujimori hopes that the former president will be released from prison this Wednesday, when the corresponding administrative procedures are completed.
“Understanding that the opening hours are until 4:00 p.m. local time here (in the prison), it is most likely that it will be tomorrow. It is necessary to continue administrative procedures so that the release letter can be made viable,” said his defense, Elio Riera, at the doors of the Barbadillo prison in Lima.
He indicated that he was going to go to the National Penitentiary Institute of Peru (INPE) to try to speed up the pending administrative procedures and that he hopes that this Wednesday at noon Fujimori can be released.
He explained that after speaking with the former president and informing him of what was dictated by the Constitutional Court, he has shown “calm, hope and gratitude to all the people who have worked for this just cause.”
“It is necessary to continue administrative procedures so that the release process can be made viable”
The resolution issued this Tuesday by the TC also called “severe attention” to the judge of Ica and urged him to “exercise more diligence and zeal in the fulfillment of his functions when executing the sentences approving habeas corpus.”
The pardon, granted to Fujimori on December 24, 2017, had already been annulled by the Judiciary in 2018, after the Inter-American Court asked the Peruvian State to guarantee the administration of justice for the victims of the massacres of Barrios Altos and La Cantuta, the cases for which Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Last week, hours before the Ica judge’s decision, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expressed its concern over the possibility that the TC’s resolution would lead to Fujimori’s release.
The organization recalled that on April 7, 2022 “it established the reasons why the State should refrain from granting a pardon ‘for humanitarian reasons’ in compliance with the inter-American standards established in the supervision resolutions of the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta cases “.
For its part, the Inter-American Court asked the Peruvian Government to send it a report on compliance with what was ordered in its resolution last year.
In this regard, the TC expressed itself in its resolution this Tuesday “on the lack of jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in matters of compliance with sentences, to determine the unenforceability of a sentence.”
The Inter-American Court asked the Peruvian Government to send it a report on compliance with what was ordered in its resolution last year
After pointing out that “it is unobjectionable” that “there is an obligation of the State to comply” with the decisions issued by the Inter-American Court, he considered that it must submit any non-compliance to the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) “in cases in which a State has not complied with its rulings”.
According to the analysis of the signatory magistrates, for this reason “it is outside its jurisdiction (of the Inter-American Court) to order a State, in monitoring compliance with a sentence, not to execute a sentence of a national court.”
“By virtue of this lack of jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to, within the framework of monitoring compliance with sentences, directly order the non-execution of a judicial decision, this Court ordered the execution of its sentence dated December 17 March 2022,” he noted.
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