Why will Alberto Fujimori go free? Timeline of his pardon, return to prison and the failure of the TC

Former President Alberto Fujimori will be released after the Constitutional Court (TC) declared the habeas corpus presented by the defense founded. Among the 6 members of the TC, the vote was 3 to 3. Ernesto Blume, José Luis Sardón and Augusto Ferrero voted in favour; Marianella Ledesma, Manuel Miranda and Eloy Espinosa-Saldaña opposed it. However, Judge Augusto Ferrero used his final vote in favor of the convicted man for the crimes of qualified homicide, enforced disappearance, aggravated kidnapping, corruption, among others

The TC ruling restores the effects of the humanitarian pardon granted to him by former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in December 2017. But how did it get to this point and why will Alberto Fujimori go free? Below is the chronology of recent events.

TIMELINE OF ALBERTO FUJIMORI'S FREEDOM

- In September 2017, then-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (PPK) made surprising but strategic changes in his cabinet and removed Justice Minister Marisol Pérez Tello; and Health Minister Patricia García, who disagreed with giving him a pardon for Alberto Fujimori.

- The new Minister of Justice, Enrique Mendoza, changed the members of the Minjus Presidential Graces Commission. In addition, the rules for the formation of the Prison Medical Board were changed, which could now be composed of the prisoner's doctor.

- On December 11, 2017, Alberto Fujimori formally requested his humanitarian pardon before the Presidential Graces Commission of Minjus.

- On December 15 of that year, the first motion for presidential vacancy against President PPK is approved

- On the 21st of that month the debate and voting on PPK's vacancy in Congress takes place. It was striking that the Fujimorist bench divided its vote: the keikist wing voted in favor of the vacancy, while the followers of Kenji Fujimori (the Avengers) voted against it. Then it became known that Alberto Fujimori himself called the congressmen of Fuerza Popular not to vote in favor of PPK's vacancy

- On December 25, 2017, PPK surprised citizens by announcing in a message to the nation that a day earlier it had decided to grant a “medical pardon” to the imprisoned Alberto Fujimori.

- Marches are called against Fujimori's pardon and the families of the victims of La Cantuta and Barrios altos announce that they will appeal to the International Court of Human Rights (IACHR) for considering that the pardon was illegal

RETURN TO PRISON

- In March 2018, the keikist wing of Fuera Popular convenes a press conference to make public the so-called 'mamani videos' which recorded the alleged negotiation between Kenji Fujimori and orange congressmen to vote against PPK's vacancy (which had been voted in December 2017) in exchange for gifts. The orange congressmen involved are removed from Congress and legal action is initiated against them.

- That same month, PPK resigns from the presidency a new vacancy motion which would hardly be saved after the revelation of the 'mamani videos'

- The IACHR orders the Peruvian justice system to review the pardon Alberto Fujimori to see if it conforms to the standards of the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights

- On October 3, 2018, the Supreme Court of the Judiciary annuls Alberto Fujimori's pardon and orders his arrest.

NEW FAILURE OF THE CT

- Attorney Gregorio Parco files a habeas corpus that seeks to annul a court decision that suspended the pardon granted in 2017 to Alberto Fujimori. The measure questioned the prison and argued that the former president “is an 82-year-old person, poor health, he is no longer a danger to society”.

- On December 17, the TC, with one less member after the death of Carlos Ramos, decides with a deciding vote the departure of Alberto Fujimori. Among the arguments taken into account in deciding his release, it was considered that “he is a person with health problems, that the humanitarian situation must be addressed and that in the 2017 pardon there were sufficient conditions for” him to be released from prison, as explained by Judge Eloy Espinoza, who voted against it.

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