Peru's former authoritarian leader Alberto Fujimori on Thursday appealed to current President Martin Vizcarra and to judges not to return him to prison because his "heart would not cope."

The former president, 80, spoke from a private clinic where he is undergoing treatment for heart disease and under police guard, in a video address aired on Peru's independent Canal N cable television station.

"I want to ask the president of the republic and members of the judiciary one thing only: Please, don't kill me," Fujimori said. "If I return to prison, my heart will not cope. It is too weak to go through the same thing again."