UN: international body should weigh in before any Fujimori pardon

Lima, Peru | AFP | The UN's top human rights official on Tuesday suggested Peru should seek international medical opinion before any pardon is given to disgraced ex-president Alberto Fujimori.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein spoke to a Peruvian human rights legislative committee amid concerns that Fujimori, 79, who is jailed for human rights abuses, might win a pardon due to serious health problems.

President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has spoken publicly about the issue, only to later say that he was not reviewing any proposal.

"Crimes against humanity, along with war crimes and genocide, are crimes that concern the international community as a whole, in other words, international crimes," he told lawmakers.

While allowing that the decision was a domestic one for the South American nation "it will be reasonable to have experts from the international community also join the evaluation to make these determinations," the UN official argued.

During his visit, Al Hussein met with the president as well as with justice officials.

Fujimori, an agronomist by training elected to lead Peru from 1990-2000, was convicted in 2007 for his role in killings by a death squad targeting supposed guerrillas when he was in power.

He has since been in and out of hospital with heart, back and stomach trouble and growths on his tongue, which have been operated on several times.

Last year his daughter Keiko Fujimori narrowly lost the presidential election to Kuczynski.

The courts have rejected efforts by his family to have him freed from prison.