Carlos Rivera: “Ferrero, Blume and Sardón are fulfilling a political agenda by freeing Fujimori”

The Constitutional Court decided to declare a case for habeas corpus founded, which determined reinstate the pardon granted to former President Alberto Fujimori in 2017 by former president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. There were three votes in favor and against, but Judge Augusto Ferrero, head of the highest organ that interprets the Magna Carta, ended up tipping the scales in favor also father of former candidate Keiko Fujimori.

The ruling has generated widespread rejection. Mainly from the relatives of the victims of Barrios Altos and La Cantuta. In an interview with Infobae, lawyer Carlos Rivera Paz questioned the votes of, apart from Ferrero, of judges José Luis Sardón and Ernesto Blume. It anticipates that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights will end up annulling Fujimori's pardon.

- How do you describe the ruling of the Constitutional Court that releases former President Alberto Fujimori?

- Look, actually, I'd like to read it first. I think the term aberrant could qualify the thing they just did. I have tried to make an effort to imagine what were the arguments that came from national, constitutional and international law to annul Fujimori's pardon. I can't find any. I believe that what had been resolved since the Inter-American Court itself, in May 2018, and what happened later in the judicial instance in October of the same year and February 2019, it seems to me that it was consistent and impeccable under international law. You cannot pardon someone who is so irregularly convicted of crimes against humanity. None of that has changed.

- The votes ended up tied. Augusto Ferrero, president of the Constitutional Court, tipped the balance towards the ruling in favor of Fujimori. Should this magistrate be inhibited considering that in 2019 he publicly said he had met with Keiko Fujimori before he was appointed?

- Look, I think that any magistrate of any court in Peru must not only be but also appear. It seems to me that Ferrero unfortunately does not have that condition. Therefore, it is true that some lawyers had been publicly requesting that Mr. Ferrero be inhibited, but under the current circumstances we could have wasted a little time on that request. I have the impression that Ferrero, Blume and Sardón are strictly following a political agenda. That is why they decide to depart from any criteria of legality. What they are doing is being held accountable for a political compromise. They have abandoned the principle of being judges. I don't think there is any other reason why Alberto Fujimori is being released. Fujimori is still alive, in 2019 they said he was about to die and it didn't happen, and then in May 2018 the Inter-American Court established guidelines for the granting of humanitarian pardons.

- What were they?

- Public recognition of repentance, express and public requests for forgiveness, collaboration to clarify the facts. What has been fulfilled by that? Nothing. Therefore, the conditions under which the Court issued its decision, in May 2018, in fact, have not changed any millimeter. The only thing that has changed is the composition of the Constitutional Court. And that is what they are using and taking advantage of right now.

- Even former President Fujimori has not paid a single sun of civil reparation.

- He hasn't paid. What's more, he said he won't do it. To this day, his defense insists that he is innocent. That is, he continues to reject the charges and conviction. There has been a position, I am not going to tell you in rebellion, against the pronouncements of the Peruvian justice system. It was assumed that in order to grant a pardon, a whole stage had to be fulfilled and the requirements that, without a doubt, none had been made.

- Has it taken its toll that the TC is now composed of six judges, of which three have a clearly conservative tendency?

- Yes, unfortunately and I'm telling you because he was my friend, the death of Carlos Ramos has been an element that has generated this outcome and which is being exploited in an openly opportunistic way.

- What is the way forward to reverse this ruling?

- Look, turning to the Inter-American Court is the most immediate route. In fact, we have done that procedure today. After the ruling of the Court, it will be appropriate for the pardon validated by the Constitutional Court's own decision to be rendered invalid. And the immediate effect is that Fujimori returns to prison. The conclusion of all this is that, again, we have made a fool of ourselves internationally.

- Attorney César Nakasaki has said that the Inter-American Court will find more illnesses in former President Fujimori and, therefore, considers that the pardon will not be annulled. What do you think?

- Look, César is a good criminal lawyer but, of course, he has never litigated in the Inter-American Court. It is forgotten that the Court will not evaluate Fujimori's illnesses but judges the responsibilities of States. The Court will not lend itself to what has been done by the Constitutional Court, which has become the Presidential Graces Commission of the Ministry of Justice. What the Court will assess is whether its decisions were complied with or not. There it seems to me that the stage is more or less sung: it will conclude that both the sentences of Barrios Altos in 2001, La Cantuta in 2006 and the resolution of compliance in 2018 have simply not been carried out. On the contrary, they have been violated, violated and grossly unknown with the aim of generating a mechanism of impunity in favor of Fujimori. Therefore, I think that Nakasaki is speaking what he wants, but it has nothing to do with what is going to happen in the end.

- How long would it take to overturn the ruling?

- The Court took a month to hold the hearing. The pardon was on December 24, 2017 and the hearing was on February 2, 2018. And his resolution came out in five months. Approximately May 30th. I think that same time will happen because here we are talking about a definite subject. We are speaking in a State where the decisions of the Inter-American Court are complied with. That fact has been overlooked by the judges of the TC and, I think, that will cost them dearly. In general, we too because we are also part of an international ridicule.

- What is the legal implication of the pardon of Fujimori in other proceedings? For example, in the Pativilca case, where the former president is on trial, the oral trial has not yet begun.

- The resolution of the TC will have to be reviewed. Indeed, the resolution of the pardon also contained a right of grace granted also for the Pativilca case. From my point of view, that judicial process against Fujimori persists because I understand that what has been annulled are the judicial decisions of the judiciary that ordered the annulment of the pardon. There, at least, there is a question about the decision taken by the TC and, therefore, we will have to wait a little longer for the publication of the resolution to know exactly what kind of arguments have been used.

- There is talk that President Castillo could annul the pardon. Is that scenario feasible?

- Formally, pardon is a supreme resolution. And that is in the administrative sphere of the Executive Branch. The president of the republic may annul any supreme resolution. He does it and that's it. Now, I don't know if that could be a path that President Castillo can evaluate. Legally and procedurally, it would be feasible.

- Prime Minister Aníbal Torres said they couldn't do much on the subject.

- That's true. We are in a discussion on the basis of a judgment of a court. The Executive Branch would have nothing to do with it.

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