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Peru's Ex-leader Fujimori Leaves Prison for Brain Scan


FILE - Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, photographed through a window, attends the final sentencing of his embezzlement trial at a police base on the outskirts of Lima, Jan. 8, 2015.
FILE - Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, photographed through a window, attends the final sentencing of his embezzlement trial at a police base on the outskirts of Lima, Jan. 8, 2015.

Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori said on Monday he has been moved from his prison cell to a health clinic in Lima to undergo testing for a brain condition and to treat problems moving his right shoulder.

Fujimori, 78, has been serving a 25-year sentence since 2009 for graft and human rights abuses during his 1990-2000 authoritarian rule.

Fujimori said on Twitter that he had been admitted to a clinic in Lima to be scanned for risk of brain ischemia, a lack of blood flow to the brain that can lead to strokes, and due to "persistent limitations moving my right shoulder."

Fujimori was treated for two brain ischemias, or restrictions in blood supply to tissues, about a year ago, his doctor Alejandro Aguinaga said.

Late on Sunday Fujimori experienced dizziness and found a very large bruise on his right shoulder that extends to his elbow, Aguinaga told reporters. "He's lucid, calm, waiting for the result of the scan."

Fujimori has undergone medical treatment outside prison several times in recent years for problems ranging from high blood pressure and depression to a growth on his tongue.

Fujimori's eldest daughter, Keiko Fujimori, narrowly lost her second presidential bid this year, dashing his supporters' hopes that he might be freed from prison with a presidential pardon.

President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who took office in July, has said he would not pardon Fujimori but would be willing to sign legislation that allows aging prisoners like him serve their sentences under house arrest.

Keiko Fujimori's right-wing party holds a majority of seats in Peru's single-chamber Congress but has not proposed any legislation that would result in Fujimori leaving prison.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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