Peru's ex-leader Fujimori treated for hypertension, depression

Reuters
Peru's former President Alberto Fujimori leaves the clinic where he was transferred from his prison cell to undergo neurological tests after feeling dizzy and briefly losing the strength in his legs, his doctor said, in Lima, March 31, 2016. REUTERS/Janine Costa/Files

LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian ex-president Alberto Fujimori was moved from his prison cell to a clinic to undergo urgent care for high blood pressure and depression, the head of the state penitentiary institute Julio Magan said on Friday. Fujimori, 77, has been serving a 25-year sentence since 2009 for graft and human rights abuses during his 1990-2000 authoritarian rule. "He was transferred urgently," Magan said on local broadcaster RPP, saying Fujimori suffered from high blood pressure, depression and tongue pain. Fujimori has received medical treatment outside of his prison cell several times in recent years, including for surgery to remove a growth on his tongue and cataracts in one eye. The most recent spell follows his eldest daughter Keiko Fujimori's second straight narrow defeat in a run-off presidential election two weeks ago. President-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a 77-year-old former investment banker, has said he would not pardon Fujimori but would sign legislation that allows ageing prisoners like Fujimori to serve their sentences under house arrest. Keiko Fujimori's party has a solid majority in Congress. Outgoing President Ollanta Humala, whose five-year term ends on July 28, rejected a pardon request from Fujimori in 2013 after a special commission concluded he was not suffering from a terminal illness. (Reporting By Marco Aquino; Writing by Mitra Taj; Editing by Sandra Maler)