Peru’s ex-leader Fujimori discharged from hospital

Jailed former President Alberto Fujimori, photographed through a glass window, leaves a courtroom at a police base on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, Thursday, March 6, 2014. Fujimori, who is already serving 25 years following previous convictions, is now being tried for allegedly diverting government funds to finance newspapers that backed his successful run for a third term. AP

Lima, Peru – Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, who was pardoned last year while serving a long jail sentence for human rights abuses, was discharged from hospital on Wednesday after treatment for heart problems, his personal doctor said.

He returned to his home in the capital Lima after being cleared to leave the Centenario clinic, his doctor Alejandro Aguinaga was quoted as saying by the official Andina agency.

“We must always pay attention to his health,” Aguinaga added.

Fujimori – who just turned 80 – ruled Peru with an iron fist from 1990 until 2000.

He was rushed to the clinic on Sunday with signs of cardiac arrhythmia, which is an irregular beating of the heart, one of his aides said. He was also expected to undergo cancer screening for the lungs and tongue.

The ex-president has had a number of operations as part of a long-running battle with tongue cancer.

Fujimori was pardoned by presidential decree last December. He was 12 years into a 25-year jail sentence handed down to him over his ordering of two massacres by death squads between 1991 and 1992.

The pardon, issued by then-president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski before he was himself brought down by a corruption scandal, triggered a wave of protests by human rights organizations and by victims of Fujimori’s crackdown.

This was Fujimori’s fourth hospitalization since his release from prison.   /kga