Fujimori will continue in prison, is it definitive?

Alberto Fujimori will be released again 1:15

(CNN Spanish) --

On April 7, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights asked the Peruvian State to refrain from implementing the ruling of the Constitutional Court of Peru, of March 17, which granted former President Alberto Fujimori his freedom.

The sentence restored the effects of the humanitarian pardon granted in December 2017 to Fujimori by then President Pedro Pablo Kuczynki, which was annulled by the Peruvian Justice a year later, after which Fujimori returned to prison.

Alberto Fujimori, president of Peru from 1990 to 2000, was sentenced in 2009 to 25 years in prison for the crimes of qualified homicide and serious injuries to the detriment of the victims of the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta cases.

• The Inter-American Court of Human Rights asks the Peruvian State to refrain from executing the release of Alberto Fujimori 

What is the future of Alberto Fujimori?

CNN spoke with César Nakazaki, the former president's lawyer, and with Carlos Rivera, the lawyer for the victims of the cases for which Fujimori was sentenced.

Nakazaki maintains that the former president's family has decided to persist in their demand for his release.

"We are going to insist that the pardon recover its effects," said the lawyer.

To do this, he explains that two actions will be implemented.

The first has been to request the Constitutional Court to debate whether it is appropriate to comply with the decision of the Inter-American Court on the grounds that, according to the Pact of San José of Costa Rica, "who determines how the provisions of the Court are complied with or not is each State according to their right”, says Nakazaki.

On the contrary, Carlos Rivera, lawyer for the victims, points out that the Court's decision is mandatory according to the law of the treaties signed and ratified by Peru – the 1969 Vienna Convention and the American Convention on Human Rights. –: “The Court has been marking the jurisprudence in the sense that the States are obliged to comply with the decisions, except for a matter of difficult interpretation”, he underlines.

Fujimori's lawyer explains that the second action will be to promote the habeas corpus that he presented in 2019 (the one that granted the former president his freedom was presented by another lawyer, Gregorio Parco).

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Nakazaki maintains that this will make it possible to review one of the Court's demands regarding whether Fujimori's illness "justifies or does not grant a humanitarian pardon."

Indeed, in 2018, the Court, in a resolution monitoring compliance with the judgments in the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta cases, ruled on the pardon granted to the former president and decided to verify the proportionality between the right to justice of the victims and the right to health of the sentenced person.

Carlos Rivera says that what Nakasaki mentioned is only one of the Court's demands for the State to consider granting a pardon, but that there are others such as "verifying whether the inmate has acknowledged his criminal acts, whether he has paid civil compensation or if he has apologized to the victims”, and that he is not aware that this has been done.

For this reason, in the face of a possible new ruling by the Constitutional Court that could order Fujimori's release, "if the Peruvian State has not met that standard, we are going to repeat the same story."

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PHOTOS |

The political life of Alberto Fujimori in pictures --- Alberto Fujimori is a Peruvian politician, of Japanese origin, who presided over Peru between 1990 and 2000. His government was full of controversies and accusations of crimes, for which he was finally sentenced to 25 years in prison.

In this photo he appears at a military parade in Lima in July 1991. (Credit: HECTOR MATA / AFP via Getty Images) →

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This 1940 photo shows a family photo of former President Alberto Fujimori (second from right) when he was a baby with his mother Matsuei (third from left), his sister Rosa de him (right).

The girl to the right of him is unidentified.

Fujimori's parents immigrated to Peru in 1934, 35 years after the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants to Peru.

(Credit: JAIME RAZURI/AFP via Getty Images)

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Fujimori was elected president of Peru in 1990. He received the country in economic chaos.

In the first years of his government and after an economic reform, the so-called "Fuji-shock" paved the way for economic recovery and growth.

(Credit: DANTE ZEGARRA/AFP via Getty Images)

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Known as "El Chino" for his Japanese origins, Fujimori had an authoritarian style during his administration.

So much so that he dissolved Congress in 1992, an action that was condemned by the international community but welcomed by many Peruvians.

In this 1990 photo, Fujimori is greeted like a hero with chants by people from his ancestral city of Kawachi, Japan.

(Credit: KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP via Getty Images)

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Alberto Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years in prison for murder, kidnapping, and corruption, in addition to acts of corruption committed during his government, between 1990 and 2000. In this photo, Fujimori appears in 2007 before the Supreme Court of Justice, which sentenced him that anus.

(Credit: JAIME RAZURI/AFP via Getty Images)

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Fujimori imposed measures to defeat the domestic terrorism that bled the country dry for more than a decade.

During his government, Abimael Guzmán (in this photo), the leader of the Shining Path guerrilla group, responsible for countless deaths in the country, was captured.

(Credit: HECTOR MATA/AFP via Getty Images)

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In 1997 it ended with a four-month hostage-taking by the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) guerrilla group at the residence of the Japanese ambassador in Peru.

In this photo, members of the special forces of Peru appear taking hostages from the residence of the ambassador where they were kidnapped.

One hostage, two soldiers and all the MRTA rebels were killed in the operation.

(Credit: MARIE HIPPENMEYER/AFP via Getty Images)

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With Fujimori the country was divided: his followers say that Fujimori recovered Peru's economy and ended terrorism.

But his opponents say the former president built an autocratic and corrupt regime, controlled the media and violated human rights.

This file photo shows Fujimori visiting a poor neighborhood in Lima on August 20, 1992. (Credit: YURI CORTEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

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Fujimori won the presidency three times and was in power from 1990 to 2000, despite allegations of irregularities during his rule.

In this photo from 1997, the president of Peru appears waving in New York.

(Credit: JON LEVY/AFP via Getty Images)

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But human rights groups and thousands of victims say that during his presidency, Fujimori carried out a sterilization campaign that was part of a birth control program in the 1990s in rural areas of the country.

In this photo from the year 2000, demonstrators protest against Fujimori in front of the Palace of Justice in Lima, when Fujimori was sworn in for a third term.

(Credit: FIDEL CARRILLO / AFP) (Photo by FIDEL CARRILLO/AFP via Getty Images)

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The end of his regime began when a corruption scandal broke out that shook his government, with his intelligence chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, at the center of the scandal with the so-called 'vladivideos', a collection of home videos made by his adviser that made fall to Fujimori after a decade in power.

(Credit: Newsmakers)

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Vladimiro Montesinos, Fujimori's former intelligence chief, is serving a 20-year prison sentence for crimes of corruption and human rights violations, in addition to his participation in an illegal arms exchange with Colombian rebels, and another 15 years for corruption charges.

(Credit: EITAN ABRAMOVICH/AFP via Getty Images)

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Fujimori denied any wrongdoing or wrongdoing, and in 2000, after attending an OPEC summit, he came to Japan claiming Japanese citizenship as the son of Japanese immigrants.

This in order to avoid extradition.

On November 13, 2000, Fujimori resigned from the presidency via fax from Japan.

In this photo, Fujimori speaks to journalists from Tokyo on November 21.

(Credit: TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP via Getty Images)

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The Congress of Peru did not accept his resignation and on November 21, 2000 declared him "morally incapable" and removed him from office.

In this photo there is graffiti in Lima repudiating Fujimori and Montesinos.

(Credit: FIDEL CARRILLO/AFP via Getty Images)

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In 2005, Fujimori arrived in Chile when he was preparing for a political comeback.

He was arrested in the neighboring country and years later extradited to Peru to face charges of human rights violations.

He also faced charges of corruption, bribery and abuse of power.

In this photo, Fujimori, accompanied by Chilean officials, leaves the Santiago police station where he was detained after being informed of the Peruvian justice's request for his extradition.

(Credit: LUIS HIDALGO/AFP via Getty Images)

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In 2007 he unsuccessfully runs for the Senate of Japan to prevent his extradition.

He does not get a seat in the Japanese senate.

That year, he was extradited to Peru and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Two years later, in 2009, he faced another trial and received another 25 years in prison for human rights violations, including kidnapping.

(Credit: STR/AFP via Getty Images)

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"I am innocent and I do not accept this sentence, I do not accept this accusation."

Fujimori has constantly said that he did what the country needed.

In this photo, the former president appears in December 2007 at the beginning of his trial before the Peruvian justice system.

(Credit: FRANCISCO MEDINA TAGLE/AFP via Getty Images)

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In 2017, then-President of Peru Pedro Pablo Kuczynsky granted him an unexpected humanitarian pardon on Christmas Eve.

The decision produced controversy in the country and further divided public opinion.

"I am aware that the results during my government were well received on the one hand, but on the other hand I recognize that I have also disappointed other compatriots. I sincerely apologize to them," Fujimori said from his hospital bed that year.

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Alberto Fujimori greets his followers as he leaves the Centenario Clinic in Lima on January 4, 2018 after twelve days hospitalized.

Days before, he had received a humanitarian pardon from the PPK president.

(Credit: LUKA GONZALES/AFP via Getty Images)

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Fujimori's humanitarian pardon sparked protests in Peru.

(Credit: CRIS BOURONCLE/AFP via Getty Images)

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President Kuczynski's decision was rejected by many in Peru, calling him a "traitor" and calling for Fujimori to serve his sentence, as this photo taken in Lima, Peru, on January 30, 2018 shows. (Credit: CRIS BOURONCLE/AFP via Getty Images)

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A year after his pardon, in January 2019 Fujimori's humanitarian pardon was annulled and he re-entered the Barbadillo prison, located within the Directorate of Special Operations (Diroes), in Lima.

There he will serve the remainder of his 25-year prison sentence for human rights crimes.

In this photo, police and sympathizers appear outside the clinic where Alberto Fujimori was hospitalized.

(CRIS BOURONCLE/AFP/Getty Images)

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In October 2021, Fujimori, who underwent heart surgery to place a stent because the anterior descending coronary artery was 75% obstructed, informed his family doctor and congressman for Fuerza Popular, Alejandro Aguinaga.

(Credit: ERNESTO BENAVIDES/AFP via Getty Images)

The position of the Peruvian State

At the hearing in which the Court requested not to release Fujimori, the State representative maintained that it recognized the binding nature of the Court's judgments and that the decisions of the Constitutional Court "cannot be excluded from the conventional control of the organs of the System." Inter-American”.

The chancellor, César Landa pronounced himself in the same sense.

By resolution of the @CorteIDH, Peru must refrain from implementing the sentence of the @TC_Peru of 03.17.2022, which ordered to "restore" the effects of the pardon of 12.24.2017 granted to Alberto Fujimori, since it did not comply with what was ordered by the Inter-American Court .https://t.co/HqiWDUYBTS

– César Landa (@ CesarLanda0) April 8, 2022

The decision of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights came after the request for provisional measures presented by the legal representatives of the victims upon learning of the ruling of the Constitutional Court that freed Fujimori.

In its resolution, the Court indicates that the Peruvian State must refrain from releasing the former president "because he did not comply with the conditions determined in the Resolution of supervision of compliance with judgments of May 30, 2018."

The resolution cited by the Court was mentioned by both Fujimori's lawyer and the victims' lawyer, during the conversation with CNN for the preparation of this article.

In 2018, this supranational instance, after learning of the pardon granted to the former president by the then president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, ordered the Peruvian Justice to rule.

Thus, the Peruvian Justice left it without effect.

The history of the Fujimori sentences

In 2001 and 2006, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued judgments on the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta cases that ordered the Peruvian State to comply with its obligation to investigate, prosecute and, if applicable, punish those responsible.

April 2009

The Peruvian Justice sentenced Alberto Fujimori to 25 years in prison for qualified homicide and serious injuries to the detriment of the victims in both cases.

December 2017

President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski grants a pardon to Alberto Fujimori and he leaves prison.

• Violation of human rights, corruption, embezzlement, and more: these are the crimes of Alberto Fujimori (2017)

May 2018

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights issues a resolution to monitor compliance with its sentences and orders that the Peruvian Justice rule on the pardon.

October 2018

The Supreme Court of Justice of Peru annuls the pardon and points out that the criteria of the Inter-American Court were not taken into account in its 2018 compliance supervision resolution.

January 2019

Alberto Fujimori is arrested and returned to prison.

March 2022

The Constitutional Court issues a judgment (March 17, 2022) declaring the 

filed by attorney Gregorio Parco founded and ordering Fujimori's release, but the victims' representatives request provisional measures from the Inter-American Court, which finally requests the State Peruvian refrain from releasing the former president.

Alberto Fujimori