"Alberto Fujimori has filed a pardon request with the Justice Ministry. It will be processed under due constitutional and legal terms," Prime Minister Pedro Cateriano said in a tweet on Saturday.

Fujimori - who is serving a 25-year prison term for corruption and crimes against humanity - has been in and out of the hospital in recent months with gastric problems. The 77-year-old has also had cataract surgery and has had five operations for a cancerous growth on his tongue.

Fujimori's latest hospitalization in June came shortly after his daughter, Keiko Fujimori, narrowly lost the presidential election to center-right candidate Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. Kuczynski takes office on Thursday.

Outgoing President Ollanta Humala rejected a similar request in 2013, saying medical reports indicated Fujimori's condition was not sufficiently serious. Under Peruvian law, granting pardons is a presidential prerogative.

Fujimori was president from 1990 to 2000 and was jailed in 2007 and convicted in 2009 for his role in killings by a death squad targeting members of the Shining Path guerrilla group in the 1990s. He was also convicted of embezzlement and bribery.

jbh/cmk (AFP, AP)