Peruvian president defends pardon
– Peru’s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski defended his pardon for Alberto Fujimori on Monday as justified clemency for an ailing man whose authoritarian government in the 1990s helped the country progress.
Addressing Peruvians for the first time since pardoning Fujimori on Christmas Eve, Kuczynski appealed to Peruvians protesting his decision to “turn the page” and accept it.
The pardon has pitched Kuczynski’s centre-right government into a fresh political crisis less than a week after Congress nearly removed him from office in the wake of a graft scandal.
Earlier on Monday, police fired tear gas to disperse crowds in downtown Lima in a second day of unrest, while a third lawmaker announced he was abandoning Kuczynski’s political party.
Fujimori, who like Kuczynski is 79, is a deeply divisive figure in Peru. While many consider him a corrupt dictator, others credit him with ending an economic crisis and quashing a leftist rebellion during his decade in power.
The pardon cleared Fujimori of convictions for graft and human rights crimes, 12 years into a 25year prison sentence.
Kuczynski, a former Wall Street banker, reiterated that the pardon was a response to fears that Fujimori might die in prison.
But, for the first time since running for office a year ago, he also defended Fujimori’s decade in power. –