Former Head of State Alberto Fujimori asked the Constitutional Tribunal of Peru on Wednesday to reverse his 25-year sentence.
Fujimori’s move has been rejected by human rights organizations and victims of the crimes committed by his government in the 1990s. Fujimori addressed the court via a telephone call from prison. He argued that the sentence was for Crimes Against Humanity while the request for extradition that brought him from Chile to Peru was for common crimes. The former dictator also claims that one of the judges who sentenced him is openly critical of his political movement known as Fujimorismo.
Fujimori was sentenced in April 2009 to 25 years in prison as a “facilitating author of the crimes of qualified homicide, and assassination under aggravated and aforethought circumstances” of nine students and a professor at La Cantuta University and 15 people, including an 8-year-old child in the Barrios Altos neighborhood. He was also sentenced for aggravated kidnapping of journalist Gustavo Gorriti and businessmen Samuel Dyer.
Through a telephone call that was amplified using speakers for the members of the Constitutional Tribunal, Fujimori asked for his sentence to be declared “nulled and without legal consequences” and for there to be a “new judicial process with the guarantees of the correct procedures.” The Anti Corruption Agency pointed out that when Fujimori was sentenced, crimes against humanity where not included in the penal code.
Human rights organizations claim members of Fujimori’s party who hold office are putting political pressure on the judicial system. For instance, Congresswoman Cecilia Chacón stated on live national TV that “Fujimori will leave prison through the large gate.” “Leaving through the large gate” is a Spanish expression that means one will be glorious and powerful at the end.
For Human Rights Specialist Glatzer Tuesta from the Instituto de Defensa Legal, such statement “is a warning that if they reach the presidency they will have some sort of submission [of government institutions]. It is not a slip of the tongue or a lapse, it is what the Fujimori’s really think. The true agenda of Keiko Fujimori continues to be to free [Alberto] Fujimori.”
His daughter Keiko Fujimori has made it to the runoff election for the presidency that will take place on June 5. However, Fujimorismo has already won 72 out of 130 seats in the legislative power. Such situation maintains on alert the victims of the crimes of Fujimori’s regime. They reject the return of Fujimorismo to power. Carmen Amaro, sister of one of the victims, argues that “for us as relatives of the victims is an insult, it is offensive for the memory of our family members because Fujimori was sentenced in the year 2009, the sentence was ratified in 2010, and nevertheless since then up to today the only thing they promote with this resources is to foment impunity and avoid responsibility for these crimes.”