MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

IACHR requests Peru refrains from freeing Fujimori

Releasing the former head of state would be against the victims' right to justice, the IACHR believed

The Costa Rica-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) has issued a ruling telling the Peruvian State to refrain from releasing former President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) from jail as ordered by the country's Constitutional Court (TC).

The IACHR required Peru “to guarantee the right of access to justice of the victims of the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta cases” to refrain from executing the TC ruling, so Fujimori's release must be put on hold until the supranational court can make a final ruling on the matter.

According to the IACHR, the full decision on the case will be published in the next few days, once the request for provisional measures presented by the lawyers of the victims' families is dealt with.

Peru's Constitutional Court had decided that a pardon issued by former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski Dec. 24, 2017, in favor of Fujimori on humanitarian grounds, given his age and health was in force despite an annulment from the Supreme Court.

The TC was in fact very much split on this ruling with three votes going each way. In the end, Chief Justice Augusto Ferrero's vote was counted as a double vote to rule in favor of the habeas corpus.

Fujimori is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence at the Barbadillo penitentiary for crimes against humanity.