By Zehra Ulucak
LIMA, Peru (AA) – Citing ill health, Peru's president late Sunday pardoned his predecessor Alberto Fujimori from serving a 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity and corruption.
In a written statement, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said that he decided to release Fujimori, 79, for “humanitarian reasons ” as he has “a progressive, degenerative and incurable disease.”
On Saturday Fujimori had been rushed to the hospital with a sharp drop in blood pressure and heart arrhythmia.
Human rights activists protested the pardon, which cannot be appealed.
Fujimori, who served in 1990-2000, fled Peru in 2000 after a bribery scandal, but was arrested in Chile in 2007 and extradited to his country.
The former president was convicted of the death of 25 people, embezzlement, and bribery.
