Peru president vowed to free Fujimori to win support: lawmaker

LIMA (Reuters) - A congresswoman in Peru said embattled President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski survived a vote in Congress to oust him by promising some opposition lawmakers that he would pardon the country's jailed former authoritarian leader, Alberto Fujimori. Cecilia Chacon, a lawmaker with the opposition party Popular Force, said the 10 abstentions by a faction in her party had helped defeat its bid to oust Kuczynski in the wake of a graft scandal, and that some of them had mentioned the promise. "That's what they told us," Chacon said in broadcast comments. Earlier on Thursday, Kuczynski's government denied it was negotiating a possible pardon for Fujimori in exchange for votes to save him. Kuczynski pulled off a surprise victory after the motion in Congress to oust him fell eight votes short of the 87 needed to pass. Fujimori is serving a 25-year prison sentence for graft and human rights crimes during his 1990-2000 government. (Reporting By Mitra Taj; Editing by Kevin Liffey)