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Peru's president-elect Kuczynski denies plan to pardon ex-president Fujimori

Xinhua, July 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

Peru's president-elect, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, categorically denied on Tuesday that he was set to pardon former president Alberto Fujimori, who is currently carrying out a 25-year prison sentence for crimes against humanity.

Kuczynski's declaration came in response to a request by Julio Gago, a congressman with Popular Force, a party headed by Fujimori's daughter, Keiko. On Monday, Gago asked Kuczynski to pardon the former president at his investiture on July 28.

"There is no base to be saying this," said Kuczynski in a statement. The eventual pardon of Fujimori has been a controversial topic in Peru for years, where many still admire the former president. Kuczynski and other candidates have warned that Keiko Fujimori might forgive her father if she won the presidency.

On Monday, Gago said that Kuczynski's first official act should be to issue the pardon in order to show a desire to work with the majority Popular Force bloc in Congress, which represents 73 out of 130 legislators.

Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2009 for the massacres of Barrios Altos (1991) and Cantuta (1992), where 25 people were killed by soldiers, at the orders of the former president. Enditem