Alberto Fujimori: Federico Salazar and Patricia del Rio against the pardon of the former president

On March 17, the Constitutional Court (TC) reviewed and discussed the pending habeas corpus filed by lawyer Gregorio Parco to rescind the Supreme Court's decision in December for the pardon of Alberto Fujimori. The result was in favor of the measure: the former president was pardoned, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta case.

Previously, a pardon had been given at Christmas 2017 during then-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (PPK), who granted the pardon to Fujimori Fujimori for reasons humanitarian. With this new decision, the TC declares one of the three cases seeking the release of the former president founded.

The journalist and also colummist for the newspaper El Comercio, Federico Salazar said that what the TC has done is a failure and that everyone has been surprised by the decision of the Fujimori case, he also explained what lawyer Gregorio Parco did.

“The appeal passed several instances in the justice of Ica from where it was finally sent to the Constitutional Court. It was not the only time that Parco turned to CT. The lawyer filed an appeal in his favor after serving prison for fraud and forgery. He also appealed in favor of those convicted of rape. All those appeals were rejected,” Salazar commented in his El Comercio column.

In addition, he commented that the TC has been in favor of those who do not usually make rigorous justifications or invalidate any recourse to justice.

“Until the Court's judgment is known, we can only speculate. The CT had already rejected another habeas corpus of Parco in favor of Fujimori . The arguments, to a large extent, were similar to the last appeal submitted,” he added.

About Parco,, he commented that he invoked “the right not to be subjected to torture”, nor to “environmental pollution and coronavirus” and that is what is stated in the document that evaluated the Joint Upper Emergency Chamber of Ica.

“To Fujimori, Parco said, “politicians have him confined as a trophy.” Until the resolution of the TC is known, however, it will not be possible to make a real appreciation of the arguments that were made in favor of Fujimori,” he continued.

“The main reasoning, Parco said, was the lack of competence of a criminal judge to annul the Supreme Resolution of the pardon. 'The letter did not say that he (Alberto Fujimori) was old or anything', assured the lawyer. He explained that his argument is that 'a criminal judge is incompetent to declare a supreme resolution null',” he quoted.

On the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), he assured that the case of the pardon of 2018 should be resolved in the jurisdictional seat. “That is what Peruvian justice was based on to declare the invalidity of the 2017 pardon,” he said.

“The ruling of the Inter-American Court ordered that the pardon should be subject to constitutional control in Peru. The criminal judge who heard the case relied on the possibility of exercising constitutional control on the option of diffuse control. Perhaps this is what the majority have valued in the TC to rescission of the judicial decision. At the end of the day, the TC is the highest interpreter of the Constitution. We do not know, however, what has been the basis of the majority in the Tribunal. He will not be able to consider Fujimori's health or arguments such as those that lawyer Parco used in his writings. ”, he said.

He ended by mentioning that this pardon had many irregularities. “In order to annul the judgment that invalidated it, the TC would have to show undeniable and convincing constitutional and jurisdictional reasons. Not only is the Fujimori case at stake, but the constitutional justice of the country.”, he concluded.

For her part, Patricia del Río has her own opinion about this pardon of Fujimori, where she points out, also for the newspaper El Comercio, and mentioned that “since Alberto Fujimori came to power, the fate of the Peruvians has been fatally linked to that of his clan.”

“By that we are not referring to the acts of governments carried out by Alberto, Keiko, Kenji or Susana, when they held public office, but to the domestic quarrels that had to stay where the dirty laundry is kept without affecting the whole country,” he added.

She takes a tour of what has been the family history of the Fujimori, mostly of their children, Kenji and Keiko Fujimori.

“From the first family scandal, namely the death lawsuit for donated clothing between the Fujimori spouses, emerged the figure of Susana Higuchi, one of the mothers of anti-Fujimorism who faced her ex-husband since several candidacies for almost ten years. When in 2000, Luis Iberico and Fernando Olivera presented the famous' vladivideo 'Kouri-Montesinos that expectorated the' Chino 'from Palacio, sitting at the same table with the face of triumph was Mrs. Susana Higuchi, claiming an old revenge,” he recalled.

Regarding the second “scandal” they had, it was the next generation, where they sought the struggle for control of the Fuerza Popular party, between the two Fujimori brothers

“Let us remember that, in his second attempt to reach the presidency, Keiko had decided to disalbertize the party. He had left the old Fujimorist guard off the congressional lists and had dismissed himself from the figure of his father. Kenji, the most voted congressman of the moment, whose only agenda was to get Alberto out of jail, was not amused by the turn and approached PPK to offer him the votes that would save him from a safe vacancy, in exchange for a pardon. On December 21, the ten votes of Kenji and friends saved PPK's skin and three days later Alberto Fujimori received his pardon,” he said.

“We know the end of the story: Kenji faces justice today for these practices and Alberto returned to the Barbadillo estate. This week, however, the TC has said that the judiciary does not have the power to revoke a pardon and Fujimori is about to hit the streets again. As is often the case with all issues involving the most toxic former president in our history, his freedom has opened wounds, unleashed insults, confronted a country that is so often tired of arguing. What is absurd and ironic is that the Fujimorists accuse all those who consider that the 'Chino' must die in prison, conveniently forgetting that the one who tried hard to return him to the boat, in order to harm his brother, was none other than the heiress Keiko Fujimori,” he concluded.

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