Ordered to jail, Peru's Fujimori in hospital
October 4, 2018
Alberto Fujimori has been taken to a hospital, just hours after the country's top court annulled a pardon granted to the ex-president last year that protected him from prosecution for human rights crimes.
Earlier Wednesday, Supreme Court Judge Hugo Nunez ruled that Fujimori was to serve out the remainder of his 25-year prison sentence because the pardon he received in December was incompatible with the American Convention on Human Rights, to which Peru is a signatory.
"This decision is inhuman, it's unjust," Fujimori's daughter, opposition politician Keiko Fujimori, said after the court ordered her father back to jail.
Miguel Perez, the lawyer for the former president, immediately appealed the ruling. He asked the arrest order to be suspended on the basis of his 80-year-old client's poor health. Fujimori must still complete more than 14 years of his sentence, meaning he would leave prison in 2032 at age 94.
Ordered to jail, taken to the hospital
Shortly after the ruling Fujimori, who has been hospitalized on several occasions in recent years, was transported by ambulance to a local hospital. He was accompanied by his son, politician Kenji Fujimori.
"As the son of Alberto Fujimori it is my human obligation to be with him in his most difficult moments," Kenji tweeted. "If I have to give my life and even my freedom for you, I will do it."
Torn political family
Albert Fujimori served as the president of Peru from 1990-2000, with some considering him a corrupt, authoritarian dictator who carried out mass crimes against civilians, and others seeing him as a maligned hero who quashed leftist rebels and stabilized Peru's economy.
Fujimori resigned from office while in Japan in 2000 amid accusations of human rights violations and corruption scandals. After being extradited back to Peru in 2007, he was sentenced to prison for his role in multiple civilian massacres. He was later also found guilty of corruption.
Fujimori's health has been previously intertwined with his judicial fate. In 2007, then-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski granted Fujimori a humanitarian pardon, saying he did not want to see a former president die in prison.
The political opposition accused Kuczynski of cutting a political deal in order to avoid an impeachment vote. He is now under investigation in relation to the pardon, with Kenji Fujimori seen as the main player behind the deal.
Fujimori's daughter Keiko and son Kenji, both national politicians, are currently engaged in a power battle for control over the right-wing political opposition.
cmb/cmk (EFE, Reuters, dpa)