Peru's president pardons ex-leader Fujimori, citing his health

[alp227]

Source: Reuters

LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski pardoned former authoritarian leader Alberto Fujimori late on Sunday, clearing him of convictions for human rights crimes and graft before completion of a 25-year prison sentence.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-peru-fujimori-pardon/perus-president-pardons-ex-leader-fujimori-citing-his-health-idUKKBN1EJ007

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This Reuters article is very short and under construction. BBC has a longer one: Alberto Fujimori: Peru's jailed ex-president pardoned

[sandensea]

1. One crook pardoning another.

And on the Holidays no less. How touching.

[dalton99a]

2. Also:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/24/world/americas/alberto-fujimori-peru-pardoned.html
Peru’s President Pardons Alberto Fujimori, Enraging Critics
By ANDREA ZARATE and SEWELL CHAN | DEC. 24, 2017

LIMA, Peru — Alberto Fujimori, who as Peru’s leader in the 1990s revived the economy and crushed two violent leftist insurgencies, but was forced out in a corruption scandal and later imprisoned for human-rights abuses, received a medical pardon on Sunday night, a decision that prompted an outcry across the Andean nation.

The Christmas Eve pardon was approved by President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who himself narrowly survived a bid by Congress on Thursday to remove him from office over allegations linking him to a graft scandal that has rattled Latin America.

Mr. Kuczynski survived the effort to remove him from office by exploiting divisions within the main opposition party, which is led by his chief rival, Keiko Fujimori, who is Mr. Fujimori’s elder daughter. Ms. Fujimori, who lost by a slim margin to Mr. Kuczynski in a presidential runoff election in June of last year, had distanced herself from her father.

But a faction of her party — led by her younger brother, Kenji — split with Ms. Fujimori last week and abstained, denying Mr. Kuczynski’s enemies the supermajority needed to remove him. The younger brother had urged the pardon, so Mr. Kuczynski’s decision on Sunday was seen as a way of rewarding Kenji Fujimori for his help. The younger brother is viewed by some as more likable and a more promising face for the party, compared with his sister, who has twice failed to win the presidency.