The former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo, imprisoned after being sentenced for accepting bribes and money laundering in the context of the 'Odebrecht case', has demanded that the current president of Peru, Keiko Fujimori, "accelerate" the procedure for the presidential pardon that he had already requested for humanitarian reasons, claiming to suffer from a "serious heart problem" and cancer and that he does not wish to "die in prison".
"I ask Mrs. Keiko Fujimori, who received a message from me when her father died, to please accelerate the process of my request for a presidential pardon because I do not want to die here in prison," Toledo stated in an interview on the Panamericana Televisión network.
The former president, who claims to be going through "extraordinarily difficult times", explained that he has submitted a petition to the Supreme Court to authorize him to "go home" with the commitment to enter "immediately" into a clinic. "I have a serious heart problem, I have cancer and I want to be frank: I am bleeding," he added, insisting on the seriousness of his health condition.
In response to this request, the new head of the Executive has indicated that the request for pardon will be subjected to "two types of analysis": "One of a technical and medical nature, and also with a humanitarian perspective".
"The members of the Commission of Pardons and Presidential Graces have to be established, and these people will start when they assume their functions to carry out the corresponding analysis," Fujimori specified in statements to the media, emphasizing that the process must follow formal channels.
Toledo, who held the presidency of Peru from 2001 to 2006, was sentenced in October 2024 to 20 and a half years in prison after being found guilty of collusion and money laundering in the 'Interoceánica Sur' case, sections II and III, the road that connects Peru with Brazil.
Thus, he became the first former Peruvian president convicted in relation to the Lava Jato operation, the massive corruption scandal originating in Brazil that implicated the construction company Odebrecht in an international scheme with institutional ramifications in more than a dozen countries in Latin America.
The legal case against Toledo began in 2016 after the Odebrecht scandal broke, although he did not enter prison until 2023, after being extradited from the United States, where he lived with his wife, Elaine Karp. By 2025, she had already requested a humanitarian pardon for the former president, also for humanitarian reasons.