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Protestant and Catholic Christians in Peru have joined human rights activists to petition their government to extend a three-year amnesty program aimed at freeing innocent persons imprisoned on sedition charges.

Christians mobilized following a public announcement by President Alberto Fujimori that he will cease granting pardons to persons unjustly accused of involvement with the Shining Path terrorist movement of the 1980s and early 1990s. Concerned Christians say Fujimori's decision could mean that over 300 innocent people will remain in jail for years.

During a press conference on December 2, Fujimori told reporters that, at the end of the month, he will disband the special Ad-hoc Commission that has been investigating cases of persons falsely accused of membership in the Shining Path, a crime that carries prison sentences of 20 years to life. When journalists asked why he was ending the amnesty program, the president stated, "There are no more innocent people in jail in Peru."

Several authoritative voices disagree. They include the Peace and Hope Association, a Christian legal aid service that, since 1996, has gained freedom for 32 persons wrongfully imprisoned for terrorism, the Catholic Episcopal Commission on Social Action, which has handled several hundred similar cases, and Public Defender Jorge Santistevan, who heads the Ad-hoc Commission.

"In total, there are 411 pending requests for pardon. I don't know how many of these are innocent. One is enough to continue (the amnesty program)," stated Santistevan in an interview that appeared Tuesday in the Lima newspaper El Comercio.

Since its formation, the Ad-hoc Commission has helped free 469 persons from prison after determining they were innocent of terrorism charges. According to Alfonso Wieland, director of the Peace and Hope Association, some 316 innocent people remain in jail; 30 are active members of evangelical churches.

"Right now, there are 66 cases on the president's desk, recommended for pardon by the Commission, awaiting the president's signature," Wieland added. "No one knows why he does not approve them."

Fujimori has not offered an explanation as to why he granted pardons to over 460 persons in the first two years of the Ad-hoc Commission but to only seven in 1999. He has refused to sign any pardons during the past eight months. According to Peru's constitution, the president is the only public official invested with pardon powers.

Of the 66 persons who have been cleared of criminal charges by the Commission and who await the presidential signature in order to leave prison, three are evangelical Christians. They are Edwin Caldas Cruz of Chiclayo, imprisoned in Picsi; David Gonzalez Condor of Huancayo, imprisoned in Huamancaca, and Javier Hermintanyo Benito of Lima, jailed in Castro Castro Prison.

On December 9, Santistevan and Father Hubert Lanssiers, who also serves on the Ad-hoc Commission, sent a letter to Fujimori recommending that he allow the commission to function through the end of 2000, so that it could "act without time pressures."

Earlier in the week, the president's office received another letter, signed by 52 Protestant pastors and church leaders, urging him to continue granting pardons. Signatories included Rev. Felix Calle, president of the National Evangelical Council of Peru, Rev. Carlos Garcia, former vice-president of Peru, and Rev. Pedro Arana, general secretary of the Peruvian Bible Society.

At a public celebration in Lima's San Martin Plaza marking the international observance of Human Rights Day, volunteers collected nearly 3,000 signatures on a petition asking Fujimori to extend the amnesty process.

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December (Web-only) 1999, Vol. 43