A Peruvian court on Thursday granted the pardon of former President Alberto Fujimori who is serving a 25-year jail term for human rights abuses during his presidency in the 1990s, local media reported.
With the court's decision, Fujimori, who was born in Peru to Japanese immigrants, is likely to be released from a detention facility near the capital Lima.
The Peruvian government pardoned Fujimori on medical grounds in 2017, but the Supreme Court rescinded the decision the following year at the request of relatives of the victims in the human rights cases.
After spending time in a hospital, Fujimori was detained again in January 2019. He was hospitalized on March 3 this year due to an abnormal heart rate and returned to the detention facility on Monday.
Fujimori was elected president in 1990. He was credited with rebuilding the economy and suppressing leftist guerrilla uprisings.
He also led an armed operation to free hostages from the Tupac Amaru insurgency during a siege of the Japanese ambassador's official residence in Lima from 1996 into 1997.
In 2000, Fujimori fled to Japan following a corruption allegation against his aide, and was later dismissed as president by the Congress.
After traveling to Chile in 2005, he was extradited to Peru two years later and convicted of involvement in human rights abuses that claimed the lives of civilians.
