Jailed ex-Guatemalan president receives medical attention for 'cardiac problem'

"The family called me to tell me that General Perez Molina had a cardiac problem. I do not know the severity," the ex-president's defense lawyer Cesar Calderon told Reuters.

Jailed former Guatemalan president Otto Perez was receiving medical attention, the spokesman for the Central American nation's prison system said on Tuesday, after he suffered what his lawyer described as a "cardiac problem."

"The family called me to tell me that General Perez Molina had a cardiac problem. I do not know the severity," the ex-president's defense lawyer Cesar Calderon told Reuters.

"I do not know what happened to him or how he is ... Since it is an emergency, his transfer to a hospital was requested," said Calderon, of the politician who previously served in the army.

The prison system spokesman said Perez was receiving "preventive" medical attention after he requested it.

A fellow inmate held in the same part of the jail said Perez had suffered a heart attack. The inmate asked not to be named.

Perez was forced to resign and imprisoned in a multi-million dollar graft case stemming from an investigation by the U.N.-backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG).

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