As I noted in today’s Human Rights Today post, “Alberto Fujimori, the former president of Peru, has been jailed for 25 years after being found guilty of all charges, including crimes against humanity, following a 15-month trial.” He was found to have ordered two massacres and two kidnappings that took place in the 1990s during the country’s “dirty war” against the Shining Path rebel group.
Fujimori’s conviction stands in stark contrast to a U.S. court’s rejection of Ted Stevens’ conviction on corruption charges because of prosecutor misconduct. The former Alaska Senator Stevens had been prosecuted for accepting bribes from government contractors. Within days of his conviction last year, Alaskan’s voted him out of office.
The irony of the injustice inflicted on the corrupt Mr. Stevens is palpable. As the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank noted today, “the longest-serving Senate Republican had become an unlikely victim of the overreach of George W. Bush’s Justice Department. Stevens found that when the government starts down a path of disregard for the rule of law — at Abu Ghraib, in the torture memos, in the mass firings of U.S. attorneys and at Gitmo — ultimately even a powerful lawmaker is not immune. Stevens, rescued by a Democratic attorney general and new prosecutors who “deeply, deeply regret” what happened, pledged to push for legislation to reform prosecutions “when the dust settles.” ”
It was enough to give even a hardened conservative a bleeding-heart sympathy for the accused note the Washington Post. “Imagine what it’s like for people who don’t have any money,” Andrew Lundquist, a former aide to Stevens and to Vice President Dick Cheney, said as he left the courtroom.
Yes, my heart goes out to all of the conservative victims of the American justice system.
Looking to one of our southern neighbors, I was pleased to see that justice was rendered in a country short on on this important process. It was announced yesterday that Peru’s former strongman Alberto Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years in prison, following his conviction for “crimes against humanity” committed during his decade-long iron-fisted rule.
A court in the country’s capital, Lima, tried and convicted the former president for his role in crimes committed by an army death squad during his ten-year rule. Fujimori’s tough stand against the insurgents eventually crushed their movements. But that legacy, while praised by many in Peru, left a sense by many more that he had crossed the line into brutality. In convicting Fujimori, international observers said the three judges handling the case scrupulously observed due process.
Herein lies the rub.
Ted Stevens, a corrupt bully in a position of power, suffered abuse at the hands of other corrupt thugs – fellow Republican operatives in the Justice Department.
The Bush Justice Department ate one of its own when it yet again found that the ends justified the means.
Do I revel in the injustice inflicted on Stevens and the justice served upon Fujimori? Yes. Revenge is sweet however it is served. Yet if we were to reverse these two outcomes, would we feel the same?
Looking inward at the rule of law in America, I remain troubled by the continuing disregard for the system of justice that has, for the last eight years, rejected the rule of law in favor of partisan political expediency. Guantanamo, Baghram, secret renditions, waterboarding: these are all words that will forever be etched in our minds as we reflect on the Bush years. Restoring the rule of law in America is critical. Perhaps taking a lesson from a South American nation who’s own rule of law had failed in the past should be considered. Seeking to restore its system of justice by holding its most powerful accountable is a lesson we must learn.
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