06.12.2023, Lima.
A rally against the release of Peru’s former president-dictator Alberto Fujimori was held in Lima in front of the courthouse. RT wrote on December 6.
Citizens dissatisfied with the decision of Peru’s constitutional court, which ordered Fujimori’s release, gathered via social networks and went to the protest in the center of Lima.
“Under the slogan #Indultoesulto, today we oppose the illegal pardon of human rights violator Alberto Fujimori,” read the messages that urged citizens to protest action.
Outside the Palace of Justice, relatives of the victims of the La Cantuta case gathered to protest Fujimori’s release, which they called a “shameful decision.” When citizens walked up the palace’s grand staircase with photos of the victims, it led to clashes with the police.
In turn, several Fujimori supporters stationed themselves near the Barbadillo Correctional Facility to celebrate the court’s verdict with slogans, banners and music from the Fujimori movement.
The day before, three judges of Peru’s highest constitutional court agreed to order Peru’s National Penitentiary Institute and the management of the Barbadillo prison to immediately release Fujimori, who is serving a sentence for crimes against humanity, given his advanced age and poor health.
The decision to release Fujimori has sparked a storm of outrage in Peru because it overturns a ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR). In 2022, the IACHR urged Lima to keep the former dictator behind bars to guarantee the right of access to justice for the victims of the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta massacres.
This view was echoed on December 5 by the human rights organization Human Rights Watch, which, through its Americas Division Director Juanita Goebertus, called to remember that “releasing Alberto Fujimori would violate the rulings of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.” She warned that such sentences are subject to mandatory enforcement. “The penitentiary institution, which reports to the Ministry of Justice, should not release him,” the head of the organization stressed.
Fujimorist leader Alberto Fujimori is known for becoming a right-wing dictator president in the 1990s, creating an authoritarian regime in which death squads fought leftist rebels, whom the current Peruvian government calls “terrorists,” and hundreds of thousands of native Peruvians were subjected to forced sterilization. In 2009, Fujimori was found guilty of human rights violations and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He is serving his sentence in Lima’s Barbadillo prison. His Fuerza Popular party is now led by his daughter and follower Keiko Fujimori
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
