Ailing Alberto Fujimori pardoned by Peru's president

LIMA - Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski on Sunday pardoned former leader Alberto Fujimori who had been serving a 25-year jail term, citing his health condition, the presidential office said in a statement.

"The president ... has decided to grant a humanitarian pardon to Mr. Alberto Fujimori ... as he suffers a progressive, degenerative and incurable disease," the statement said.

Fujimori, 79, was transferred from his cell to a hospital on Saturday after his blood pressure dropped.

He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2009 for the massacres in Barrios Altos (1991) and Cantuta (1992) in the neighborhood of capital Lima when he was president. Soldiers killed 25 people on his orders.

His daughter Keiko Fujimori, who narrowly lost Peru's last presidential election to Kuczynski, leads the opposition Popular Force party. The party last week pushed to impeach Kuczynski but failed to pass the motion in the Congress, the Peruvian parliament.

The motion to impeach Kuczynski followed revelations that companies linked to him had accepted bribes from disgraced Brazilian conglomerate giant Odebrecht, although Kuczynski denied any wrongdoing.