The Fujimori Judgment A President's Responsibility for Crimes Against Humanity as Indirect Perpetrator by Virtue of an Organized Power Apparatus

Abstract

In 2009, former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori was convicted by the Peruvian Supreme Court to 25 years' imprisonment as an indirect perpetrator of serious human rights violations amounting to crimes against humanity committed under his presidency in 1991 and 1992. The conviction is based on the theory of control/domination of the act by virtue of an organized power apparatus (autoria mediata por dominio de la voluntad en aparatos de poder organizados/mittelbare Taterschaft kraft Willensherrschaft in organisatorischen Machtapparaten) demonstrating once again that this theory is a serious option to hold criminal leaders to account. The article gives a brief overview of the background of the case and then moves on to analyse Fujimori's responsibility from a national and international criminal law perspective, focusing in particular on the evidentiary issues and the five requirements of Organisationsherrschaft set out by the Peruvian Supreme Court.