The Constitutional Court (CT) declared unconstitutional one end of the Organic Law of Elections (Law 26859) that prevented those convicted of terrorism from running for any popularly elected position even if they were rehabilitated.
The lawsuit was filed in March 2020 by Alfredo Crespo, lawyer for the deceased terrorist Abimael Guzmán and founder of Movadef, against a sentence that was included in the norm by the Congress of the Republic, in 2018.
According to the law, those sentenced for terrorism and apology for terrorism are prohibited from running “even if they have been rehabilitated.” Rehabilitation is understood when a person has served their sentence and with the payment of civil compensation.
In this line, the maximum interpreter of the Magna Carta concluded that this sentence violates the principle of resocialization of all people.
“By establishing the prohibition to participate in political life to a person who has been rehabilitated, it implies a violation of the principle of presumption of innocence and contravenes the right to reincorporation of the prisoner into society recognized in article 139 paragraph 22 of the Constitution ”, reads the sentence issued on November 8 last.
:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/ETU4EBNZ5BGTZMTLIWNI6B4ZZQ.png "TC: Rehabilitated prisoners convicted of terrorism may run in elections")
Arguments of the TC to allow the candidacy in elections of rehabilitated convicted of terrorism.
The constitutional body also argued that political parties have the responsibility to previously evaluate their candidates, and that citizens must analyze each government plan and the resumes of the applicants before casting their vote.
In this regard, former magistrate of the TC Ernesto Blume indicated that there must be exceptions in the application of the resocialization criteria to justify a sentence like this.
“When it comes to crimes against humanity, society has to be more rigorous and establish exceptions, because this type of crime implies a violation of values and principles, and this deserves to have an exception in the effects of rehabilitation,” Blume told Peru21.
Keep in mind
-The rapporteur in the case was Judge Luz Pacheco. Her presentation was supported by her colleagues Francisco Morales, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Helder Domínguez, Manuel Monteagudo and César Ochoa.
-7,345 citizens joined the lawsuit filed by Alfredo Crespo.
