Peru's ex-president released after controversial pardon

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Peru's ex-president Alberto Fujimori was wheeled out of a Lima hospital late Thursday a free man following a controversial pardon by President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

A frail-looking Fujimori, 79, held up a hand to wave to supporters as aides rolled him out of the main entrance of Lima's Centenario Clinic in a wheelchair, before he was whisked away in a convoy of vehicles accompanied by his lawmaker son Kenji.

A woman repeatedly shouted "We love you, we love you!" as she tried to reach Fujimori's vehicle through a line of security officials.

Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori poses for a photo with his son Kenji in Lima, Peru, in this photo obtained from social media, January 4, 2018. /VCG Photo

"With my dad," wrote Kenji Fujimori on Twitter, publishing a selfie taken with his father in the back of their SUV.

Fujimori, who wore a dark coat over a blue shirt, looked tired in the photo, while the son who orchestrated his release seemed euphoric. Later, he published a video in which both wave to the camera.

"They are the first minutes of Alberto Fujimori in freedom," the family's doctor Alejandro Aguinaga told AFP.

He said Fujimori would meet later with his four children in what would be "an emotional family reunion."

Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori accompanied by his son Kenji Fujimori (R) leaves Centenario Clinic in Lima, Peru, January 4, 2018. /VCG Photo

Analysts said the ailing ex-leader's first task would be to reconcile his rival children, Kenji and his sister Keiko, amid fears of a lasting split in the opposition Fuerza Popular party whose leadership Keiko inherited from her father. The Fujimori party is the main political group in the country and controls Congress.

"What will happen now is a sort of attempt by the father to soothe the family trouble," political analyst Fernando Tuesta told AFP.

Security police guard the compound where former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was taken following his release from the Centenario Clinic in Lima on January 4, 2018. /VCG Photo

Kuczynski, a 79-year-old businessman turned center-right politician who beat Keiko to the presidency in 2016 by capitalizing on the anti-Fujimorist vote, said he had pardoned the ex-president for humanitarian reasons – reneging on an election pledge never to do so.

Fujimori was pardoned days after Kenji and a raft of Fujimorist lawmakers abstained from voting on Kuczynski's impeachment in what was seen by many as a backroom deal to save the president from corruption charges.

The December 24 announcement prompted a wave of protest in Peru. Fujimori was released after serving less than half of a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses.

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Source(s): AFP