MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Peru has 60 days to extradite Fujimori

A high level Peruvian delegation arrived Monday in Chile for talks on the extradition of fugitive former president Alberto Fujimori who has been retained in Santiago after having unexpectedly arrived Sunday from self imposed exile in Japan.

Fujimori is wanted in Peru on 22 counts of corruption and human rights abuse but Chile has ruled out an automatic handover and said the request will have to run its course in the courts.

"This is in the hands of the justice system. Peru will have to see when it activates the extradition petition", said Chilean Foreign Secretary Ignacio Walker. Although Chile and Peru have had an extradition treaty for over seventy years it is not clear if arrest warrants issued by Interpol are legally binding in Chile.

Peruvian Foreign Affairs minister Oscar Maúrtua said that the most sensitive cases will be presented to Chilean courts to ensure Fujimori's extradition, particularly claims of him having ordered the killing of 25 people and illegally handing 15 million US dollars of public funds to his former Intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos currently jailed in Peru.

"We've just started the extradition process?Peru will not accept impunity. It has been four long years of intense requests to Japan and we all know the results. Fortune and circumstances have landed Fujimori in Chile and we'll take full advantage ensuring he's taken to trial", stressed Mr. Maurtua.

Mr Fujimori received Japanese citizenship after fleeing Peru in 2000 and Tokyo repeatedly turned down requests from Lima for his extradition.

The former leader had insistently announced he would return to Peru to run for the presidency next April, despite being barred from holding public office until 2010. Former aides have organized in Peru political rallies in support of the former president who has a 15/18% standing in public opinion polls.

According to Chilean law Peru has two months to formally request Fujimori's extradition. When the time is up, there's no way Chilean authorities can retain Mr. Fujimori. The extradition request must be approved by the Peruvian Supreme Court, countersigned by the Justice Department and then dispatched to Chile by the Peruvian Foreign Affairs. Chile's Supreme Court will then decide.

But Mr. Fujimori's irruption in neighbouring Chile is not only a dramatic political challenge for the fragile President Alejandro Toledo administration but also for the Chilean government which regularly faces Peruvian challenges, the latest of which involving a possible sea limits dispute.

Neighborly relations are formally correct but faced with mounting political problems, the Toledo administration has not doubted in resurrecting dormant disputes dating back to the XIXth century and the Pacific war when Chile defeated Peru and Bolivia retaining stretches of territory in compensation.

The latest move has been the unanimous approval by Peruvian Congress of a unilateral re-drafting of sea borders which claims 35.000 square kilometres to Peruvian sovereignty, currently under Chilean control based on treaties agreed in the fifties.

Chilean president Ricardo Lagos called Monday an urgent, and exceptional, meeting of the National Security Council to assess, according to agenda, the latest Peruvian sea advance, but undoubtedly the new unexpected ingredient of the "imprudent" intruder-visitor must have also been considered.