A court in the Peruvian Ica region this Friday declared inadmissible a resolution of the Constitutional Court (TC) that restored the pardon to former president Alberto Fujimori, who will therefore continue in prison.
“The First Preparatory Investigation Court of Ica declares inadmissible the execution of the sentence of freedom of Alberto Fujimori, by his office because the habeas corpus demand has not been upheld,” indicates a message from the Judiciary published on the social network. X (formerly Twitter).
The president of the TC, Francisco Morales, stated this Wednesday that the authorities should “proceed to the immediate release” of Fujimori, despite the fact that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IDC Court) ordered the opposite last year.
“We must proceed to comply with the previous sentence,” Morales declared to Canal N television, 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 the then president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and which had given rise to different interpretations.
But the resolution signed by Judge Vicente Fernández Tapia details that the habeas corpus claim has not been upheld before the aforementioned court as it lacks jurisdiction in accordance with the last paragraph of article 27 of the New Procedural Code.
In its decision, the Ica court also ordered “that everything taken be returned to the Constitutional Court so that it can proceed in accordance with the law regarding the execution of the estimatory sentence, issued in this habeas corpus process.”
The pardon, granted 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 in which Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Also last Wednesday, lawyer Carlos Rivera, defender of the relatives of the victims of the massacres for which Fujimori was convicted, announced that he planned to go to the Inter-American Court if the former president's release was ordered.
“Let's see if today there is some kind of decision in the preparatory investigation court of Ica. Obviously the path that we will automatically take is to request a new compliance supervision process from the Inter-American Court,” he stressed.
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 on Barrios Altos and La Cantuta cases”.