Alberto Fujimori (Reuters file photo)
LIMA: Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori said on Wednesday that he was extending his more than weeklong stay in a hospital outside his prison cell because of new health problems.
Fujimori said on Twitter that he could not be discharged as expected on Tuesday because of a “severe” inflammation of his veins that put him at risk of blood clotting and infection. He was hospitalized in late January to undergo treatment for a hernia in his spine.
Fujimori, who governed Peru with a heavy hand for a decade before fleeing the Andean country during a massive graft scandal in 2000, has been serving a 25-year prison sentence for corruption and human rights abuses.
Now 78, Fujimori has been hospitalized several times in recent years for various health problems.
Peru could jail a second former president if a judge this week decides that Alejandro Toledo, Fujimori’s successor, must spend 18 months in “preventive prison” while prosecutors prepare criminal charges against him for alleged corruption.
(Reporting by Mitra Taj; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
