Pardoned Peru ex-president leaves hospital

by Roberto Cortijo 
Agence France-Presse

LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Alberto Fujimori, Peru’s pardoned former president who was until recently serving a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses, was discharged from hospital Tuesday after receiving treatment for cardiac arrhythmia.

Fujimori, 79, was hospitalized at the end of last year and treated for various ailments. “He is under careful medical observation,” his doctor Alejandro Aguinaga told AFP.

Aguinaga said Fujimori was given a Holter monitor that records “everything that happens with his heart, 24 hours a day.”

His release comes amid a bitter feud between his two children who are politically active — Keiko and Kenji — over the ex-leader’s pardon in December.

President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski had pledged not to pardon Fujimori, but did so just days after Kenji drained votes away from a parliamentary bid to impeach the president on suspicion of corruption, sparking speculation the pardon was political payback.

Kuczynski — who defeated Keiko for the presidency in 2016 — said he had pardoned the ex-president for humanitarian reasons.

The pardon has drawn heavy criticism from victims of his 1990-2000 rule as well as their relatives and human rights advocates.

But he also earned respect from many Peruvians for his ruthless and unflinching campaign to defeat leftist guerrillas during his presidency.

Relatives of victims of those killed under Fujimori’s rule are appealing the pardon to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which sits in Costa Rica and will hear their case on February 2.

© Agence France-Presse