Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has pardoned former leader Alberto Fujimori on health grounds in a move that has prompted angry protests, BBC reports.
Fujimori, 79, who is serving 25 years for human rights abuses and corruption, was moved from prison to hospital because of health problems on Saturday.
Mr Kuczynski denied pardoning him as part of a deal with his party last week to avoid his own impeachment.
Police in the capital Lima clashed with protesters after the news emerged.
Two members of President Kuczynski's party in the Peruvian Congress, Vicente Zeballos and Alberto de Belaunde, resigned in protest at the pardon.
Meanwhile, supporters of the man who led Peru from 1990 to 2000 celebrated outside the city hospital where he was being treated.
He is admired by some Peruvians for combating Maoist rebels but his critics considered him a corrupt dictator.
His son Kenji tweeted video of himself breaking the news of the pardon to his father in his hospital bed and wishing him a Merry Christmas.