Alberto Fujimori [BBC Profile; JURIST news archive], Peru’s former leader who was jailed in 2007, submitted another request for a presidential pardon [Reuters report] on Saturday, just five days before President-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski takes office. Fujimori is serving a 25-year sentence after being convicted in 2009 of committing human rights abuses during his 1990-2000 rule [JURIST report]. The Peruvian Supreme Court upheld the sentence [JURIST report] in January 2010, and Fujimori’s previous request for a presidential pardon was denied [BBC report] in 2013. The request was made in light of Fujimori, who suffers from hypertension, turning 78 years old next week. It is uncertain whether a decision on the request will be made before President-elect Kuczynski takes office. However, Kuczynski is not in favor of pardoning Fujimori’s guilt, although he has considered allowing pardons for aging prisoners which would permit the remainder of a sentence to be served through house arrest.

Fujimori is in prison based on four different sentences. In October 2009 Fujimori was convicted and sentenced to six years in prison on multiple counts of illegal wiretapping and bribery [JURIST report]. In July 2009 Fujimori was convicted and sentenced [JURIST report] to seven-and-a-half years in prison for paying former Peruvian intelligence director Vladimiro Montesino $15 million to resign in 2000 in the midst of the scandal that ultimately resulted in Fujimori’s arrest [JURIST report] in 2005. Fujimori’s conviction in April 2009 for approving the La Cantuta and Barrios Altos killings was met with widespread approval [JURIST report] from the current government and human rights organizations. In 2007 Fujimori was convicted [JURIST report] of ordering a warrantless search in 2000 on the apartment of Montesino’s wife. Prosecutors alleged that the search was intended to uncover and confiscate documents that might incriminate Fujimori. Fujimori, who was president of Peru from 1990 to 2000, was put on trial after being extradited [JURIST report] in 2007 from Chile, where he flew in 2005 as part of a plan to return to Peru and run again for the presidency after years of self-imposed exile in Japan.