LIMA, PERU (AP) – Peruvian authorities said on Wednesday they will comply with a request from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to not release former President Alberto Fujimori from prison until it can examine the case.
The move came almost two weeks after Peru’s Constitutional Court issued a controversial order that Fujimori be freed from the prison where he is serving a 25-year sentence for murder and corruption charges.
Special prosecutor Carlos Reaño confirmed to The Associated Press that officials would keep Fujimori in detention because of the regional court’s request. Supporters of Fujimori have gathered outside prison hoping to see his release, while those opposed to letting him out have protested in downtown Lima.
The Constitutional Court’s decision restored a humanitarian pardon granted to the 83-year-old Fujimori on Christmas Eve in 2017 by then President Pablo Kuczynski.
The country’s Supreme Court overturned the medical pardon in 2018 and ordered the former strongman returned to prison to serve out his sentence for human rights abuses.
