Peru: Ex-President Released from Prison After 16 Years

Facts

• After the country's top court granted him a pardon in 2017, former Peruvian Pres. Alberto Fujimori — who had been serving a 25-year prison sentence for human rights abuses during his presidency — was freed from Lima's Barbadillo prison on Wednesday.¹
• Despite objections from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Peru's highest court supported an appeal to restore a 2017 pardon for Fujimori — who has served around 16 years after being extradited from Chile in 2007 — on humanitarian grounds.²
• The 85-year-old left the prison compound with his lawyer and two of his children, Kenji and Keiko Fujimori. Keiko is the ex-president's political heiress and three-time presidential candidate.³
• Although followers hailed him for saving Peru from economic collapse and terrorism, Fujimori was found guilty of bribery and abuse of power. An estimated 69K people died as a result of his government's crackdown on two violent insurgencies.⁴
• Fujimori, who governed Peru between 1990 and 2000, resigned as president at the beginning of his third term and fled to neighboring Chile in 2005. In 2009, two years after his extradition, Fujimori was convicted of ordering the murder of 25 Peruvians between 1991 and 1992.⁵
• Previously, UN human rights commissioner Volker Turk had stated that allowing Fujimori to walk free would be 'a worrying setback' and that 'any humanitarian release of those responsible for serious human rights violations must be in accordance with international law.'⁶

Sources: ¹Al Jazeera, ²Reuters, ³Guardian, ⁴BBC News, ⁵Dw.com and ⁶Csmonitor.com.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Human rights watch. Alberto Fujimori was an authoritarian strongman who abused democracy and committed atrocities in the battle against the Shining Path guerillas. As he remains a highly divisive figure in Peru, Fujimori's comeback undermines Peruvian democracy and will seriously affect the country's rule of law.
• Narrative B, as provided by Associated press. Lower courts have repeatedly revoked Alberto Fujimori's 2017 pardon in response to demands from the families of the victims and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. However, considering the 85-year-old's poor health, it is time to show mercy to the man whose efforts and policies once saved the nation from spiraling into catastrophe.

Predictions