Judge Orders Arrest of Former Peru President Alberto Fujimori

Oct 03 2018, 5:25 PMOct 03 2018, 5:57 PMOctober 03 2018, 5:25 PMOctober 03 2018, 5:57 PM

(Bloomberg) -- A Peruvian Supreme Court judge on Wednesday ordered the arrest of former President Alberto Fujimori after overturning a pardon that he had received roughly nine months ago.

Judge Hugo Nunez accepted a legal challenge against the pardon, Peru’s judiciary said via Twitter.

Former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski approved the 80-year-old’s release on Dec. 24 after doctors said he was suffering from a “progressive, degenerative and incurable” illness and that jail endangered his life. Opposition lawmakers accused him of releasing Fujimori to avoid impeachment, a claim which Kuczynski denied.

Fujimori had been serving a 25-year jail sentence for directing two death-squad massacres in 1992.