Former Peruvian leader Alberto Fujimori dies at 86

Peru’s former President Alberto Fujimori, who was convicted of human rights abuses and corruption, has died aged 86, his daughter has confirmed.

Fujimori governed Peru between 1990 and 2000 before being forced from office amid allegations of corruption.

His tough stance against a left-wing guerrilla insurgency while president also brought allegations of human rights abuses.

He fled the country but was subsequently arrested and extradited, before being convicted and jailed.

His daughter Keiko Fujimori posted on social media to say the former president had died “after a long battle with cancer”.

He was convicted in a number of cases including corruption, abuse of power and being behind two death squad massacres in the early 1990s.

Last December Fujimori was released from Lima’s Barbadillo prison having spent more than 15 years incarcerated.

It came after Peru’s constitutional court reinstated a presidential pardon issued six years previously.

Fujimori had been serving out a 25-year prison sentence at the time of his pardon.

“After a long battle with cancer, our father, Alberto Fujimori, has just departed to meet the Lord,” his children Keiko, Hiro, Sachie and Kenji said in a joint statement.

“We ask those who loved him to join us in praying for the eternal rest of his soul.

“Thank you for so much, Dad!”

The son of Japanese immigrants, Fujimori ruled with an iron fist, his time in office marked by dramatic twists and turns.

His authoritarian government’s crackdown on two violent insurgencies during his tenure resulted in the deaths of an estimated 69,000 people.

When he was sentenced to prison in 2009 at the age of 70, most Peruvians assumed the former leader would spend the rest of his life in jail.

But in December 2017, he was taken from prison to hospital because of health concerns. He was suffering from low blood pressure and abnormal heart rhythm.

That same month, Fujimori was granted the pardon by then-president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski after doctors said his illness was incurable, adding that prison represented a “grave risk to his life”.