Alberto Fujimori: the other trials and civil reparation payments for which the former president still does not respond

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights asked the Peruvian State not to release former President Alberto Fujimori, and the Government will comply with that request. However, the former president will still be held accountable to justice for ten cases where humanitarian pardon and presidential grace returned by the Tribunal Constitutional (TC) would not be enough. In addition, it also owes millions of dollars to the State in civil reparations.

Civil reparation

The anti-corruption prosecutor, Javier Pacheco, revealed the figure that former President Alberto Fujimori owes the Peruvian State: S/51 million soles of civil reparation for three cases in which he was sentenced.

The cases are the irregular break-in on the home of Vladimiro Montesinos, the irregular purchase of Cable Canal and the payment of the CTS to his former advisor.

The former president has not paid any of these and on 17 March the Constitutional Court reinstated his humanitarian pardon and the right of grace.

“Fujimori has been sentenced and has the State aggrieved for three facts: the issue of irregular break-ins, the irregular purchase of Cable Canal and the payment of the CTS from Vladimiro Montesinos. For these three events Fujimori owes the State approximately 51 million soles,” he said on RPP Television.

In addition, the president does not have property or property in his name, so that the embargo cannot be carried out. He never even managed to process the acquisition of his life pension as a former head of state, so that this money cannot be taken by the State in the form of payment either.

Pending cases that will continue despite pardon

Alberto Fujimori Fujimori has yet to respond to justice for ten cases in total:

- Caso Paivilca

One of the pending proceedings is the so-called Pativilca Case. The tax thesis argues that the former president implemented a counter-subversion policy with parallel and illegal practices in charge of Grupo Colina. This led to the murder of six community members in the San José and Caraqueño pampas, in the district of Pativilca (Barranca) on 28 January 1992. The victims were Jhon Calderón Ríos, Cesar Rodriguez Esquivel, Toribio Ortiz Aponte, Pedro Aguero Rivera, Nieves Arias Velasquez and Felandro Castillo Manrique.

Fujimori is charged as an alleged perpetrator of the crime against life, body and health (qualified homicide-murder), and the perpetrator of the crime against public tranquility (crimes against public peace-unlawful association) aggrieved by the State.

The pardon and presidential grace granted by then-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski reach this process. In January 2018, Fujimori requested that the criminal action be declared extinction, but on February 9, 2018, Collegiate B of the National Criminal Chamber rejected the request and decided to continue the process.

“It is incompatible with the duties to investigate, prosecute and punish serious human rights violations, and it is also a measure that, as we have analyzed, clearly collides with fundamental rights protected by our Constitution,” the resolution states.

In addition, it details that the resolutions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Inter-American Court of Human Rights) and international law impose a clear obligation on states to investigate independent and impartial violations of human rights and crimes under international law.

- Caso Chavimochic

Former President Alberto Fujimori is also being accused of the Chavimochic Case, which is still pending. He is accused of giving $800,000 of public funds from the National Intelligence Service (SIN) to businessman Augusto Miyagusuku to buy land in the Chavimochic Irrigation Project, in La Libertad. According to the tax thesis, the purchase of the land “was a direct result of the criminal activities in which the defendant Miyagusuku and Alberto Fujimori participated, the former acting as the front man for the latter.”

- Seven other outstanding cases

Fujimori is also waiting to respond to seven other cases, whose requests for extension of extradition were already approved by the Pedro Castillo government, in 2021.

These cases concern, first of all, the sale of arms to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). In this case he is accused of alleged crimes against public safety (illegal supply of firearms) and against public tranquility (illicit association to commit crimes).

In October 2021, through six resolutions, requests for extension of extradition were approved for the six cases: Castro Castro, Chavín de Huántar, the Defense Council, the Ventocilla Family, Panamericana TV and Opponents (for aggravated kidnapping). In all these proceedings, Alberto Fujimori is charged with the alleged crimes of qualified homicide, serious injury, unlawful association to commit crime, intentional embezzlement, aggravated kidnapping and disclosure of secrets of national interest in aggrieved by the State.

- Forced sterilization

On December 11, 2021, Judge Rafael Martínez of the Supraprovincial Criminal Court of the Special National Superior Court opened criminal proceedings against Alberto Fujimori and others for the Forced Sterilization Case.

Fujimori Fujimori is prosecuted for the crime against life, body and health, serious injuries followed by the aggrieved death of Mamérita Mestanza, Alejandra Aguirre, and others, in the context of serious human rights violations. According to the prosecution, Fujimori, his former ministers and others established a public health policy that was actually a program of “sterilizations” performed without the consent of the victims. The defendants reportedly acted under the theory of “domination in an organized apparatus of power, in a context of serious human rights violations”, where the then head of state would have been “the man behind”.

The criminal proceedings for the former president alone have been suspended since that date, as the Government of Chile is waiting to issue a ruling on the request to extend the extradition of the former president in this case.