On 3 October, Supreme Court Judge Hugo Nuñez Julca declared that the humanitarian pardon given to previously jailed ex-president Alberto Fujmori was illegal. This was a result of the legal process brought to the court by family members of his victims, and followed the recommendation of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that had asked the Peruvian Supreme Court to decide whether the pardon had been legal or not.

The reasons for doubting its legality had rested on a whole catalogue of irregularities. These included the fact that Fujimori’s own doctor had been part of the medical board that evaluated him and the discrepancies between a report on 17 December 2017 (which said that Fujimori was in good health) and one issued two days later. The report also showed that the conditions he faced in the private jail of Barbadillo were far from detrimental to his health. The document presented by then president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski failed to mention that Fujimori had been jailed for human rights abuses. Finally, the pardon was issued at the precise moment that Kuczynski was under threat of impeachment and apparently formed part of a political deal.

In light of its decision, the court ordered the immediate apprehension of Fujimori. However he was not at home, having just been moved to the Peruvian-Japanese Clinica Centenario in an ambulance, accompanied by his son Kenjii. The former president was filmed walking out of the ambulance and then lying on a stretcher without any assistance. In another video that appeared later Fujimori said that his heart would fail if he were returned to jail. The police are now guarding him, awaiting a sign from the doctors to return him to jail.

Later on 3 October, Keiko Fujimori appeared in a television interview apparently distraught. Meanwhile her father’s former lawyer, César Nakasaki, declared that she should have shed a tear for her father earlier, saying that she had done little to assist her father’s release in the first place.

Keiko says she will push for the approval of a law that would allow all those over 80 to serve their sentences at home. She previously opposed a law along these lines. Keiko also plans to appeal the decision against her father.