[1] In 2009, Fujimori had been convicted of human rights violations and sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in killings and kidnappings by the Grupo Colina death squad during his government's battle against Shining Path leftist guerrillas in the 1990s.

Wanted in Peru on charges of corruption and human rights abuses, Fujimori maintained a self-imposed exile until his arrest while visiting Chile in November 2005.

[18] Other accusations against Fujimori include the mass sterilization of 231,774 indigenous people in rural Peru as a result of the National Population Program.

[21][22] In July 2016, with three days left in his term, President Humala said that there was insufficient time to evaluate a second request to pardon Fujimori, leaving the decision to his successor Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

The impeachment request was presented by left-wing party Broad Front (headed by a former priest and environmental activist called Marco Arana).

[25] Fujimori's daughter Keiko was the most outspoken supporter of the impeachment proceedings against Kuczynski, who had defeated her the year before in a tightly contested presidential election.

A medical board composed of Juan Postigo, Víctor Sánchez and Guido Hernández recommended pardoning the former President due to a "progressive, degenerative and incurable disease".

[30] An official medical board has evaluated the inmate and has determined that Mr. Fujimori suffers from a progressive, degenerative and incurable disease and that prison conditions pose a serious risk to his life, health and integrity. ...

The President of the Republic, in using the powers conferred by the political Constitution of Peru for such purposes, has decided to grant a humanitarian pardon to Mr. Alberto Fujimori and seven others who are in similar condition at 18:00 hours on 24 December 2017.The same day, Kuczynski signed R.S.

[32] On 25 December, in the face of protests against the pardon, Kuczysnki released a message to the nation, asking people to not "get carried away by hate" nor to allow the former President to "die in prison".

[10] The Peruvian non-profit law office Legal Defense Institute denounced the pardon as political and illegal and vowed to appeal it to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR).

[43] Days later, on 11 October 2018, the Congress of Peru—whose members are mainly Fujimorist—approved a bill allowing older adults to be released from prison and be placed on electronic monitoring, a move that was seen as benefiting Fujimori.