Lima (ANTARA News/AFP) - Relatives of Peru`s ailing ex-president Alberto Fujimori, who is serving a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses, will ask the government to free him on humanitarian grounds, his brother said Saturday.

The 73-year-old Fujimori, who served as Peru`s president from 1990-2000, is suffering from cancer and was hospitalized earlier this month after falling out of bed in prison.

Fujimori fled to his parents` native Japan in the final days of his presidency in the midst of a massive corruption scandal, and then resigned via fax from a Tokyo hotel in late 2000.

Japan subsequently granted citizenship to him, and Lima spent years unsuccessfully trying to convince Tokyo to extradite Fujimori to face corruption and human rights charges.

After extensive legal wrangling, Chile extradited Fujimori to Peru to face charges in September 2007. He is serving a 25-year sentence for his role in crimes committed by an army death squad during his time in office.

"We are worried about his health and his life," the ex-president`s brother Santiago Fujimori said.

Santiago Fujimori told RPR radio the family requested a medical report from the ex-leader`s treating cancer facility, known as Neoplasicas.

He said they would use it to urge President Ollanta Humala`s government to grant his brother early release on medical grounds.

Alberto Fujimori however maintains his innocence and does not want a release on those grounds, his brother said.

Humala -- who defeated Fujimori`s daughter Keiko in a presidential runoff earlier this year -- did not rule out a pardon for the ex-president during his campaign.

Fujimori has had cancerous lesions on his tongue for years, but his detractors say his illness is being exaggerated as a ploy so he can get out of prison and flee the country. (*)

Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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