Alberto Fujimori, ex-president of Peru jailed for rights abuses, dies at 86

Polarising Latin American leader had been released from prison in December on humanitarian grounds.

Alberto Fujimori, the polarising former leader of Peru who was credited with stabilising the Latin American country’s economy before being jailed for human rights abuses, has died at the age of 86, his family has announced.

Fujimori’s daughter Keiko Fujimori said the former president had died following a long battle with cancer.

“We ask those who loved him to join us in praying for the eternal rest of his soul,” Keiko Fujimori said in a post on X on Wednesday. “Thank you for so much, Dad!”.

Fujimori, a former agricultural engineer and university professor, emerged from obscurity to place second in Peru’s 1990 election against establishment favourite Mario Vargas Llosa before beating his rival in a subsequent run-off vote.

During his decade-long presidency, Fujimori won plaudits for vanquishing hyperinflation, spurring economic growth and cracking down on the Maoist Shining Path rebel group.

But the son of Japanese immigrants also attracted criticism for consolidating power through undemocratic means and undermining Peru’s institutions and rule of law.

After temporarily shutting down Congress and the courts, Fujimori fled Peru in 2000 following the emergence of footage showing his intelligence chief bribing legislators.

From exile in Japan, where Fujimori held citizenship, he famously submitted his resignation by fax machine.

In 2005, Fujimori travelled to Chile in a bid to mount a political comeback but was extradited to Peru to face trial for atrocities carried out by a military unit early in his tenure.

In 2009, Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being deemed responsible for the massacre of 25 people, including a child, by death squads acting in the government’s name.

Peru’s top court ordered his release in December, citing humanitarian grounds.

In July, Keiko Fujimori had announced that her father planned to seek a fourth term as president in 2026.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies