Constitutional Court ruling on unconstitutionality of anti-terrorist decrees
The Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional several articles of the anti-terrorist Decree Laws (Nos. 25475, 25659, 25708, 25880 and 25744) for violation of the principle of legality and due process. The judgment questioned the ambiguity in the classification of crimes and the discretion granted to the authorities during the post-1992 emergency legislation.
The Constitutional Tribunal of Peru issued a ruling declaring unconstitutional various articles of Decree Laws No. 25475, 25659, 25708, 25880 and 25744, related to anti-terrorist legislation. This ruling questioned fundamental aspects of the emergency legislation enacted after the 1992 coup d'état, including the violation of the principle of legality, the ambiguity in the classification of crimes of terrorism and treason, and the discretion granted to the authorities. The Court determined that there was a flaw of irrationality in the law, since the crime of treason was but a modality of the crime of terrorism, allowing that the same act could be subsumed in any of the criminal types. The sentence represented an important pronouncement on the violations of due process and fundamental guarantees during the period of the anti-subversive struggle.