Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski pardoned former authoritarian leader Alberto Fujimori late on Sunday, clearing him of convictions for human rights crimes and graft before completion of a 25-year prison sentence.
The decision, which stunned many in Peru, prompted calls on social media for a Christmas Eve protest in downtown Lima and could result in resignations from the Cabinet.
Fujimori’s foes slammed the pardon as the work of a political deal crafted to help Kuczynski survive a scandal.
Kuczynski’s office denies the allegations and said in a statement that a medical review showed Fujimori, who governed Peru from 1990 to 2000, suffered from “a progressive, degenerative and incurable disease.”
Fujimori, who like Kuczynski is 79, was rushed to the hospital late on Saturday after suffering a severe drop in blood pressure and abnormal blood pressure that put his life at risk, according to his doctor.
Some of Fujimori’s detractors said his hospitalisation was staged to legitimise the pardon. Fujimori’s doctor denied the allegations.
The pardon by Kuczynski comes just three days after Fujimori’s son, Kenji Fujimori, led a surprise defection in the main opposition party that narrowly saved Kuczynski from a motion to remove him from office in the wake of a graft scandal.
“We’re eternally grateful to you,” Kenji said on Twitter, speaking for Fujimori’s family.
Fujimori, who in his request for freedom said he had served 12 years in prison, is a deeply divisive figure in Peru. While many consider him a corrupt dictator, others credit him with ending an economic crisis and bloody leftist insurgency during his 1990-2000 term.
TV images showed Fujimori’s supporters waving banners that read “Freedom for Fujimori” and cheering the announcement outside the hospital in Lima where he remained late on Sunday.
For others, the pardon triggered anger and a call for protests.
“Everyone to the streets...this is not the time to sit this out,” local news website El Panfleto Peru said on Twitter.
The pardon was also a blow to family members of victims, prosecutors and human rights activists who helped put Fujimori behind bars in a lengthy judicial process that earned Peru global plaudits for fighting impunity.
Kuczynski “has betrayed justice, democracy and victims. History will never forgive you,” said Indira Huilca, a leftist lawmaker whose union leader father was shot dead in 1992 in an attack that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights deemed an extrajudicial killing.
Before the announcement, Kuczynski summoned his Cabinet and ruling party to the presidential palace on Christmas Eve. Congressman Juan Sheput, who attended the meeting, said on local broadcaster RPP that Kuczynski had already made a decision about the pardon and no one else took part in it. Lawmakers in the party, Peruvians for Change, would meet to discuss next steps.
One ruling lawmaker, Alberto de Belaunde, announced on Twitter that he was breaking from Kuczynski’s party.
Maria Luisa Cuculiza, a friend and former minister of Fujimori, said Fujimori no longer has any political ambitions.
“He wants to be free. He wants peace and progress for the country. He doesn’t want to return to politics. He just wants to be a good grandfather. He just told me that,” Cuculiza said after visiting Fujimori in the hospital.
―Reuters
