LIMA, Oct 5 ― Disgraced former Peru president Alberto Fujimori's health deteriorated over the last few hours and he is due to undergo heart surgery, his personal doctor told AFP yesterday.
“Yesterday (Sunday) he became unwell, he had an uncontrollably racing heart rate and we're going to ... fit him with two coronary stents,” said Alejandro Aguinaga.
The 83-year-old, who is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for crimes against humanity, was rushed to hospital on Friday night due to breathing problems.
Prison authorities had to give him oxygen.
“My father's condition is delicate. His heart problem has worsened,” his daughter Keiko Fujimori ― who in April lost a presidential election run-off for the third time ― wrote on Twitter.
Prison authorities confirmed on Monday that Fujimori needs “an invasive heart procedure” and is in intensive care.
Fujimori's deteriorating health comes soon after Peru's new left-wing government announced its intention to transfer him from his “golden prison” to one with fewer home comforts.
He is serving a 25 year sentence for two massacres committed by army death squads in 1991 and 1992, in which 25 people, including a child, were killed in a supposed anti-terrorist operation.
Fujimori was president from 1990 to 2000.
Imprisoned since 2007, Fujimori has long suffered from breathing and neurological problems, and hypertension.
In May 2020, a court rejected a request from his family to have him released from prison due to the risk of contracting Covid-19.
Before her election defeat, his daughter said she would pardon her father if elected president. ― AFP
