It was a relief to get the news today of the unsuccessful appeal by Peru’s ex-president Alberto Fujimori to challenge the guilty verdict and 25-year sentence he received last April. This reaffirms the Fujimori trial as a landmark positive event for the global human rights movement, and a definite blow to Fujimori supporters and their aspirations to put Fujimori in power again (the 5 judges of the appeals court handed down a unanimous decision).

The trial, as so often happens in cases that address competing historical narratives (Fujimori positioning himself as a hero who vanquished terrorism, and his opponents and civilian victims seeing him as a human rights criminal who gutted Peru’s democracy). The whole story can be seen in the Skylight Pictures documentary “State of Fear”, which is based on the thorough work done by the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Source:IJCentral