After pardon, Peru human rights and victims groups call for Fujimori to 'remain under prosecution'

Record ID: 990803

  • Title: After pardon, Peru human rights and victims groups call for Fujimori to 'remain under prosecution'
  • Date: 25th January 2018
  • Summary: WOMAN AT PRESS CONFERENCE WEARING PIN (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OF THE NATIONAL COORDINATOR FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, JORGE BRACAMONTE, SAYING: "The court should make a definitive ruling on the matter, since only two situations are able to be considered: the overturning of the process of granting the pardon, meaning starting this process over again, not with an ad hoc medical team, a medical team where those on the team are at the same time the lead doctor who becomes the judge and jury. This is truly an insult and a hoax to the country."
  • Embargoed: 8th February 2018 20:57
  • Keywords: Peru Alberto Fujimori pardon human rights abuses authoritarian regime victims
  • Location: LIMA, PERU
  • City: LIMA, PERU
  • Country: Peru
  • Topics: Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA0047ZM2OUB
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:The family members of victims of human rights abuses during the 1990-2000 administration of former President Alberto Fujimori called on a Lima court to continue pursuing legal recourse at a news briefing Thursday (January 25).
    Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a 79-year-old former Wall Street banker, who has struggled to govern alongside a Congress ruled by Fujimori's supporters, pardoned Fujimori on Christmas Eve, three days after Fujimori asked his loyalists to help Kuczynski survive an impeachment bid in Congress. The decision ignited protests and a backlash against the political establishment.
    Along with the pardon, Kuczynski gave Fujimori "presidential grace," which extinguishes the criminal liability for those facing criminal proceedings. This grace threatens to stop the former president's prosecution in the 1992 Pativilca massacre which left six peasants dead.
    Critics of the pardon and grace have slammed it as a blow to the global fight against impunity and efforts to heal the wounds of a conflict between leftist insurgents and Fujimori's 1990-2000 government that killed an estimated 69,000 people.
    At the news conference, Peruvian Association of the Family Members of the Kidnapped, Arrested and Disappeared of Peru (ANFASEP) President Juana Carrion slammed Kuczynski for his political about-face, and said, "he has not fulfilled his word."
    The court could rule on Friday (January 26) whether the case against Fujimori is covered by the grace or can continue. The case hinges on the date in which the Pativilca case against Fujimori began.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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