Ex-Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, 86, dies
Published: 03:09 PM,Sep 12,2024 | EDITED : 07:09 PM,Sep 12,2024
Supporters of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori after his death outside the house of her daughter, former Peruvian presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, in Lima. - AFP
LIMA: Peru's former president Alberto Fujimori, who spent 16 years in prison for crimes against humanity, died on Wednesday at the age of 86 in the capital Lima, his family said.
'After a long battle with cancer, our father, Alberto Fujimori, has just departed to meet the Lord,' his children Keiko, Hiro, Sachie and Kenji Fujimori wrote on the social media platform X.
'We ask those who loved him to join us in praying for the eternal rest of his soul,' they wrote, adding: 'Thank you for so much, Dad!'.
Fujimori, who led Peru from 1990 to 2000, was released from prison on humanitarian grounds in December, two-thirds of the way through a 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity during his rule.
Sources close to his family said earlier that his health had deteriorated rapidly after completing treatment for tongue cancer in August.
He was last seen in public on Thursday as he was leaving a clinic in the Miraflores district of Lima, where he said he had undergone a CT scan. The news of his death spread quickly on social media, where his supporters and detractors quarrelled over his legacy.
Just a month earlier his daughter Keiko had announced that the rightwinger would run for president again in 2026.
Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzen expressed his condolences to the Fujimori family. 'We want his children and relatives to know we feel sorrow,' he said.
Adrianzen said he would talk to the family about what kind of funeral they want. It was not clear whether Fujimori would receive a state funeral.
Fujimori, who was of Japanese heritage, was sent to prison in 2009 over massacres committed by army death squads in 1991 and 1992 in which 25 people, including a child, were killed in what he presented as anti-terrorist operations.In December 2017, then-president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski pardoned Fujimori due to his ill health.
But the Supreme Court later annulled the pardon and in January 2019, he was returned to jail from hospital. - AFP
'After a long battle with cancer, our father, Alberto Fujimori, has just departed to meet the Lord,' his children Keiko, Hiro, Sachie and Kenji Fujimori wrote on the social media platform X.
'We ask those who loved him to join us in praying for the eternal rest of his soul,' they wrote, adding: 'Thank you for so much, Dad!'.
Fujimori, who led Peru from 1990 to 2000, was released from prison on humanitarian grounds in December, two-thirds of the way through a 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity during his rule.
Sources close to his family said earlier that his health had deteriorated rapidly after completing treatment for tongue cancer in August.
He was last seen in public on Thursday as he was leaving a clinic in the Miraflores district of Lima, where he said he had undergone a CT scan. The news of his death spread quickly on social media, where his supporters and detractors quarrelled over his legacy.
Just a month earlier his daughter Keiko had announced that the rightwinger would run for president again in 2026.
Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzen expressed his condolences to the Fujimori family. 'We want his children and relatives to know we feel sorrow,' he said.
Adrianzen said he would talk to the family about what kind of funeral they want. It was not clear whether Fujimori would receive a state funeral.
Fujimori, who was of Japanese heritage, was sent to prison in 2009 over massacres committed by army death squads in 1991 and 1992 in which 25 people, including a child, were killed in what he presented as anti-terrorist operations.In December 2017, then-president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski pardoned Fujimori due to his ill health.
But the Supreme Court later annulled the pardon and in January 2019, he was returned to jail from hospital. - AFP