The decision does not prohibit the re-filing of the charge, it only annuls the "opening order" of the investigation of the case and returns it to the presentation stage. Photo:   EFE/Archive

Lima, August 11 (RHC)-- A Peruvian court has dismissed the legal case against former dictator Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), a period in which forced sterilizations were carried out on nearly 200,000 poor and indigenous women, local media reported on Saturday.

The decision comes a day after Parliament approved Law 32107 - known as the Amnesty Law - which de facto decrees the statute of limitations for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed before July 1, 2002.

The Fourth Superior Criminal Chamber declared the annulment of the act of opening a judicial case against Fujimori for the almost 200,000 forced sterilizations of women, with which the decision overturns all the findings, proceedings and progress of the case since 2021.

The ruling dismissed an appeal by the Peruvian Public Prosecutor's Office, filed in the first instance against the annulment of the case.  Experts clarified that the decision does not prohibit re-filing the accusation, it only annuls the "opening order" of the investigation of the case and returns it to the presentation stage.

During Fujimori's second government, the National Plan for Family Planning and Sexual and Reproductive Health was implemented, an initiative that promoted and carried out forced, systematic and massive sterilizations of rural, poor and indigenous women, with the sole purpose of controlling the population.