MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Peru makes official Fujimori's extradition request

Peru officially presented on Tuesday to the Chilean government the official extradition request for former President Alberto Fujimori, charged with several counts of human rights abuse and corruption.

Peru's ambassador to Santiago, Jose Antonio Meier, handed the extradition documents to Chilean Foreign Relations Minister Ignacio Walker who announced that they will be turned over to Supreme Court Justice Orlando Alvarez in charge of the case.

Mr. Walker revealed the request was packed in 12 boxes and weighed 93 kilos. Ambassador Meier said the extradition request was made "in the name of all Peruvians and particularly of the victims of the crimes attributed to Peruvian citizen Fujimori."

Together with Peruvian anti-corruption prosecutor Antonio Maldonado, Meier said that the extradition request contains serious charges against Fujimori, who ruled between 1990 and 2000 and has been under arrest in Santiago since November 7.

In 2000 Fujimori resigned the Peruvian presidency by fax from Japan amid a massive corruption scandal. He unexpectedly left Japan where he had been in exile for the past five years apparently with the aim of participating in the Peruvian presidential election next April 2006. He was arrested at a Santiago hotel during a stopover in Chile.

Judge Alvarez has no deadline to rule on the extradition request, and any decision he makes will be subject to appeal. Judicial sources say that the decision-making process on the matter could take at least six months.

Osvaldo Puccio, spokesperson for the Chilean Executive brushed aside any government "interference" in the process and emphasized that the Fujimori case is in the hands of the Chilean Judiciary which is "autonomous".