The former presidential advisor Vladimiro Montesinos He will continue in prison until 2037after the Judiciary annul the decision that declared his sentence of 19 years and 8 months for the crimes of Pativilca and La Cantuta fulfilled. The Supreme Court reformed the calculation of the sentence and established that he still has 13 years and 8 months left to serve.
The resolution was issued by the Transitory Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, chaired by Judge María Vásquez Varga, when resolving an appeal for annulment presented by the Public Ministry. The Prosecutor’s Office questioned that a higher court considered arrests issued in processes other than the case being tried as time served.
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The ruling specifies that Montesinos was convicted as the direct perpetrator of aggravated homicide and forced disappearance, crimes considered against humanity. The events correspond to the executions of the Caraqueño-Pativilca case and the kidnapping and murder of students and a professor from La Cantuta University, perpetrated by the Colina detachment in 1992.
In January 2024, the Fourth National Superior Criminal Chamber for Temporary Liquidation had declared the sentence cleared after verifying that the former advisor had been detained since 2001 for various processes. That interpretation was reversed. The Supreme Court concluded that this criterion violated article 47 of the Penal Code.
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Only six years will be discounted: the key to the new calculation in the sentence of Vladimiro Montesinos
The decision of the highest criminal court focuses on a technical point with a direct effect on the freedom of the convicted person. Article 47 of the Penal Code allows deduction of the detention time suffered in the same process by which the sentence is handed down. It does not authorize adding jail time to other people’s files.
The upper court had taken as a reference the first arrest of Montesinos in January 2001, issued in a corruption case. For the Supreme Court, that criterion was incorrect. That mandate was not related to the crimes of Pativilca or La Cantuta.
The court reviewed the accumulated files. In the Caraqueño-Pativilca case, a simple appearance was issued. In the La Cantuta trial there was an arrest warrant. This measure was extended for 72 months, that is, six years, until it was varied due to the expiration of the maximum term.
For this reason, the Supreme Court ordered that only those six years be deducted from the total sentence of 19 years and 8 months. Consequently, it set September 30, 2037 as the new compliance date. With that decision, it annulled the purgation declared in 2024.
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The responsibility of Vladimiro Montesinos in the massacres of Pativilca and La Cantuta
The sentence against Vladimiro Montesinos It is based on his role as de facto head of the National Intelligence Service during the Alberto Fujimori regime. According to the prosecutor’s accusation, he designed and coordinated a policy of eliminating suspected subversives through clandestine operations.
In the Caraqueño-Pativilca case, six people were executed in 1992 after being identified as alleged terrorists. In La Cantuta, nine students and a teacher were kidnapped, murdered and buried in clandestine graves. Both operations were attributed to the Colina detachment.
The sentence was handed down under the figure of early conclusion. Montesinos accepted the charges in 2024. The Supreme Court made it clear that criminal responsibility already has the character of res judicata. The appeal only addressed the calculation of the sentence. The exception of prescription raised by the defense was declared inadmissible.
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The penalty was set in the upper third before the early termination benefit
The Supreme Court recalls how the sentence of 19 years and 8 months was determined. The crime of qualified homicide and forced disappearance were analyzed under the figure of real crime competition, in accordance with the regulations in force in 1992.
At that time, the Penal Code established that in cases of real competition, the penalty corresponding to the most serious crime was applied. In this case, murder with malice aforethought, whose sentence ranged between 15 and 25 years.
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The upper court first set a specific sentence of 23 years. He considered that it was appropriate to place her in the upper third due to the seriousness of the events and the level of responsibility attributed as the direct perpetrator.
Then it applied a reduction of one seventh for early termination. That legal discount resulted in the final sentence of 19 years and 8 months. That point was not questioned by the Prosecutor’s Office and remained firm.
The Court warns of an improper application of article 47 of the Penal Code
The court points out that the higher court incorrectly applied article 47 of the Penal Code. This rule regulates the discounting of preventive detention time at the time of sentencing.
The Court cites its own precedents, such as annulment appeals 745-2019/Lima and 3460-2013/Lima. They establish that only prison time derived from the same process that culminates in a conviction can be deducted.
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The resolution also states that file 022-2001, used as a reference for the initial count, corresponded to a process for active corruption of officials. It had no legal link with the Pativilca or La Cantuta cases.
With this argument, the highest court concludes that the decision to consider the sentence served lacked legal basis. For this reason, it declared that there was nullity in that regard and reformed the calculation.
