Peru’s constitutional court has reinstated former president Alberto Fujimori’s pardon, the court’s chief judge Francisco Morales said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

protests against the release of Alberto Fujimori from prisonPhoto: Cris BOURONCLE / AFP / Profimedia

“Alberto Fujimori must be released according to the decision of the constitutional court,” Morales said in an interview with local radio station RPP.

Fujimori, who was convicted of human rights abuses and corruption, was pardoned for his crimes, although the pardon was revoked last year.

Fujimori was detained in 2005 during a visit to Chile and extradited to Peru in 2007.

Two years later, he was convicted of human rights violations.

On Christmas Eve 2017, former center-right President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski pardoned Fujimori on humanitarian grounds after striking a deal with a faction of Fujimori’s supporters in Congress that helped him avoid impeachment.

But a year later, a Supreme Court judge overturned the pardon, finding that it was granted for political rather than medical reasons, as required by law.

Last year, the court also ordered Fujimori’s release from prison, where he had served less than 15 years out of 25 years for human rights violations.

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