Just weeks after he was pardoned from a 25-year prison sentence, former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori has been ordered to stand trial again on a separate case of involving human rights abuses.
The country's National Criminal Court ruled Monday that the 79-year-old Fujimori could be prosecuted for the 1992 murders of six peasant farmers by a paramilitary group.
The ailing former president was granted a medical pardon in December by President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski after a review found Fujimori, who served from 1990 to 2000, was suffering from a "degenerative, incurable disease." Fujimori was convicted in 2009 for human rights abuses committed during his presidency, including authorizing killings carried out by death squads.
The court said the pardon does not shield Fujimori from being prosecuted in this case.
President Kuczynski's pardon of Fujimori set off angry street protests in Peru and was roundly condemned by human rights activists around the globe. Some Peruvians believe the pardon was part of a backroom deal struck to protect Kuczynski from impeachment on corruption charges.
