Peru ex-president Alberto Fujimori freed from prison on humanitarian grounds
- Fujimori, 85, was serving a 25-year prison term for human rights abuses during his decade-long rule in the 1990s
- Peru’s top court ordered the immediate release of Fujimori, despite criticisms by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
Peru’s former president Alberto Fujimori was released from prison on Wednesday on humanitarian grounds, despite a request from a regional human rights court to delay his release.
Fujimori, 85, was serving a 25-year sentence in connection with the slayings of 25 Peruvians by death squads in the 1990s. Peru’s constitutional court ordered his immediate release on Tuesday, but the Inter-American Court of Human Rights asked for a delay to study the ruling.
Fujimori, who governed Peru from 1990 to 2000, was sentenced in 2009 on charges of human rights abuses. He was accused of being the mastermind behind the slayings of the 25 Peruvians while the government fought the Shining Path communist rebels.
Fujimori, wearing a face mask and getting supplemental oxygen, walked out of the prison door and got in a sport utility vehicle driven by his daughter-in-law. He sat in the back seat with son and daughter, right-wing career politician Keiko Fujimori.
Dozens of supporters awaited him outside the prison and swarmed the vehicle as it attempted to move. It moved slowly through the streets of the prison’s neighbourhood as people chanted and banged on the windows.