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Peru’s ex-president Alberto Fujimori, who had been serving a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses and corruption committed during his decade-long tenure from 1990 to 2000, was released from prison on Wednesday, defying the wishes of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
The former rightwing leader, 85, was greeted by dozens of supporters as he left prison on Wednesday night. He wore a face mask and was hooked up to an oxygen supply tank as he got into a car with family members including his daughter Keiko, who is also a divisive yet influential politician in the country.
One night earlier, the country’s constitutional court ruled that the humanitarian pardon was “founded”, angering human rights activists. It ordered his “immediate release”, rejecting calls from the IACHR, an international court that had earlier ruled that Fujimori should remain in prison while it reviews his case.
“With Fujimori’s release, in blatant violation of the Inter-American Court’s orders, Peru has isolated itself on the international stage,” Juanita Goebertus, the Americas director of Human Rights Watch, posted on X, comparing the country to Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Fujimori was pardoned in December 2017 by then-president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and released, though was returned to prison soon after when it was overturned amid pressure from the IACHR.
Fujimori led Peru through the 1990s, when he beat back the Shining Path, a Marxist guerrilla group that terrorised swaths of the country, as well as shepherding in a business-friendly constitution that led to an economic boom.
A Peruvian agronomist of Japanese descent, Fujimori came into power following an economic crisis, known in Peru as the “lost decade” in which the country’s gross domestic product contracted by about 25 per cent from 1987-1990 as national debt became deeply distressed. Hyperinflation led to the abandonment of the currency and the introduction of the nuevo sol, which Peru still uses.
Despite wining plaudits for turning the economy around, his war against the Shining Path came with serious human rights abuses, a media crackdown and empowerment of the military in politics. Fujimori was later convicted of ordering the massacre of 25 people in 1991 and 1992.
In 1992, he carried out a “self-coup” by closing congress and ruling by decree, with the military’s backing. Another former president, leftist Pedro Castillo, unsuccessfully attempted a similar move last December, but lacking the support of the generals he was swiftly removed from office and jailed in the same facility as Fujimori.
Alejandro Toledo, another former president who is under investigation for corruption, is in the same jail on the outskirts of Lima, the capital.
Fujimori’s release comes amid widespread dissatisfaction with politics in Peru. President Dina Boluarte, who succeeded Castillo amid violent protests, has approval ratings of about 10 per cent while congress has about 6 per cent, according to local pollsters.
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