Peruvian court orders release of ex-president Fujimori

Peru's Constitutional Court on Thursday approved a "habeas corpus" filed by the lawyers of former President Alberto Fujimori, with which he may be released from prison this week.

The appeal proposes restoring the humanitarian pardon granted to Fujimori on Dec. 24, 2017 by then President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, and which was later annulled by the Supreme Court in October 2018 for lacking legal grounds.

The decision "restores" the December 2017 resolution "which granted the petitioner a humanitarian pardon, and orders his freedom," the court said in a statement.

Fujimori has been serving a 25-year sentence for human rights violations during his term in office from 1990 to 2000, including the massacres in Barrios Altos (1991) and La Cantuta (1992).

Peruvian President Pedro Castillo criticized the court's decision, tweeting that "the institutional crisis" he spoke of in a message to Congress on Tuesday is reflected in the latest decision from the court. ■