Peru's Constitutional Court has ordered the immediate release of  former President Alberto Fujimori, who was serving a 25-year prison sentence for crimes against humanity committed during his presidency.

The ruling reinstates a pardon granted to the ex-president on humanitarian grounds in 2017 but revoked by the Supreme Court two years later.

During his term in office from 1990 to 2000, Fujimori's security forces rigorously cracked down on left-wing and allegedly subversive forces, and parliament was stripped of its power.

Alberto Fujimori: a divisive figure

Some Peruvians credit Fujimori with bolstering growth through neo-liberal economic policies and taking on rebel groups such as the Maoist terrorist organization Shining Path.

Others remember army death squads which were implicated in massacres in 1991 and 1992 in which 25 people, including a child, were murdered in supposed anti-terrorist operations.

Fujimori was also investigated over the forced sterilization of over 200,000 non-Spanish speaking Indigenous women who, seen as an obstacle to economic development, underwent operations to have their fallopian tubes tied. In 2021, a judge ruled that Fujimori could not, at the time, be prosecuted in the case for technical legal reasons.

His ex-wife Susana Higuchi divorced him after accusing him of domestic violence and corruption. She became a vocal critic of his regime and died in 2021.

Fujimori was impeached in November 2000 on grounds of "moral incapacity" and was accused of corruption. One day before the impeachment, however, he fled to Japan, where is parents hailed from, and resigned by fax. He later went to Chile, from where he was extradited in 2007, before being jailed in 2009.

Health problems

In February, Fujimori was admitted to hospital with an irregular heartbeat. He suffers recurrent respiratory, neurological and hypertension problems and has had tongue cancer.

Over the years, his family has submitted several petitions to have him released on health grounds, all of which have been rejected — until now.

Following the Constitutional Court's ruling, Fujimori's lawyer Elio Riera traveled to the small Barbadillo jail at the barracks of the special operations police in eastern Lima to fill out the documents required for the release. He told RPP radio that the ex-president was "very satisfied" and received the news with "great joy."

A group of Fujimori's supporters also arrived at the prison wearing white T-shirts emblazoned with the phrase "Fujimori freedom."

"Justice has been done for a man who did so much for Peru," said lawmaker Alejandro Aguinaga of Fuerza Popular, the party of Keiko Fujimori, the ex-president's eldest daughter.

Elsewhere, however, some 30 people holding flowers and photos of victims of the army death squads gathered in front of the Justice Ministry to protest the order for his release.

mf/nm (dpa, AFP)