Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori dies aged 86 – family

Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori waves to journalists at his home in Santiago, 19 May 2006. FILE PHOTO/Agence France-Presse

LIMA — Peru’s former president Alberto Fujimori, who spent 16 years in prison for crimes against humanity, died on Wednesday at the age of 86 in the capital Lima, his family said.

“After a long battle with cancer, our father, Alberto Fujimori, has just departed to meet the Lord,” his children Keiko, Hiro, Sachie and Kenji Fujimori wrote on the social media platform X.

“We ask those who loved him to join us in praying for the eternal rest of his soul,” they wrote, adding: “Thank you for so much, Dad!”.

READ: Peru defends release of ex-president Fujimori

Fujimori, who led Peru from 1990 to 2000, was released from prison on humanitarian grounds in December, two-thirds of the way through a 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity during his rule.

Sources close to his family told AFP earlier Wednesday that his health had deteriorated rapidly after completing treatment for mouth cancer in August.

READ: Peru’s ex-president Fujimori freed after 16 years in prison for human rights abuses

Just a month earlier his daughter Keiko had announced that the rightwinger would run for president again in 2026.

Fujimori, who was of Japanese heritage, was sent to prison in 2009 over massacres committed by army death squads in 1991 and 1992 in which 25 people, including a child, were killed in supposed anti-terrorist operations.