Peru's Fujimori tongue lesion cancerous: daughter
LIMA (Reuters) - Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori's daughter said on Friday that a lesion removed from her father's tongue was "cancerous," though a family doctor said the growth had not spread.
Fujimori, 69, who is on trial on charges of ordering two massacres during his 1990-2000 presidency, underwent surgery on Thursday. The trial was suspended on Wednesday.
Court-appointed doctors said the lesion was a leukoplakia, a lesion that appears as white patches on the tongue and inside the mouth. Though rare, it can become cancerous.
"Doctors explained to us that the leukoplakia they removed is of a cancerous nature," Keiko Fujimori, the oldest daughter of the former president, said at a news conference.
Fujimori's family doctor Alejandro Aguinaga, who was present during the operation, told Reuters the growth had not spread to other parts of his body.
"He will have to undergo constant monitoring and checks. Chemotherapy is not considered necessary," said Aguinaga.
The family doctor said Fujimori "wants to continue with the trial" which is scheduled to resume on Wednesday.
Fujimori is widely credited with ending the brutal war between the Peruvian state and leftist insurgencies that left some 70,000 people dead or missing.
But rights activists say he went too far in his efforts to stamp out armed groups like the Shining Path.
Fujimori has been on trial for nearly six months, charged with ordering a military death squad to carry out two massacres in which 25 people were killed. If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison.
(Reporting by Maria Luisa Palomino and Teresa Cespedes; Writing by Dana Ford; Editing by Anthony Boadle)
