LIMA, Sept 24 (Reuters) – The Inter-American Court of Human
Rights told Peru on Monday to annul a ruling by its Supreme
Court that could have paved the way for an early release of
jailed former President Alberto Fujimori.
President Ollanta Humala’s administration harshly criticized
the Supreme Court in July for cutting the prison terms being
served by members of an infamous death squad that Fujimori ran
during his crackdown on leftist insurgents in the 1990s.
Supporters of Fujimori, 74, say he was unfairly sentenced to
25 years in prison for allowing the death squad, known as
Colina, to operate on his watch. Fujimori’s conviction by a
Peruvian court in 2009 tied him to “crimes against humanity”
that the Inter-American court blamed on the death squad in 2001.
But a panel of Supreme Court judges led by Justice Javier
Villa Stein said in July a series of massacres carried out by
Colina only amounted to less serious “human rights violations.”
At the time, Humala’s office promised to block the ruling
while Fujimori’s lawyer, Cesar Nakazaki, said it could
strengthen an appeal he has been working on for his client, who
is suffering from mouth cancer.
Fujimori’s trial was a rare instance of a former head of
state being tried in his own country for rights crimes and put
Peru at the forefront in Latin American of bringing
authoritarian leaders to justice.
Since then, Peru has often had a rocky relationship with the
international court and Humala, a former soldier, once accused
it of interfering in local affairs.
More than 69,000 people died or disappeared in the 1980s and
1990s as the Peruvian state battled Maoist Shining Path
guerrillas. Fujimori is often credited for capturing the Shining
Path’s leaders but also has been blamed for widespread
corruption and human rights violations.
(Reporting By Mitra Taj and Terry Wade. Editing by Andre
Grenon)
