MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Jailed Fujimori feeling romantic

A Japanese supporter of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori said she will marry him and soon file a marriage registration in Japan.

Satomi Kataoka, who owns many luxury hotels in Tokyo and is known for her political pull in Japan, made the announcement to 2,000 Fujimori supporters in a Lima discotheque last Sunday, "We had confirmed our willingness to get married a few years ago but have not done so because we had our own situations to consider." she said

"Mr. Fujimori is being detained and is now faced with the most difficult time," Kataoka said. "I would like to extend support and fight together."

The disgraced former president is in detention in Chile, where he was arrested Nov. 7 after arriving from Tokyo. He faces the possibility of extradition to Peru, where he is accused of numerous human-rights violations and several criminal cases are pending against him.

Kataoka said she met Fujimori through a friend in 2001 after he arrived in Japan in November 2000, and they had been living together until he left Japan last November.

Fujimori, born in Peru to Japanese immigrants, had been living in self-imposed exile in Japan since November 2000 after fleeing a corruption scandal that toppled his decade-long regime. He denies the charges against him.

Fujimori, who also holds Japanese citizenship, traveled to Chile in November 2005 with the hope of returning to Peru and running in the presidential election in April.

On Jan. 14, Peru's national election commission banned Fujimori from running in the election, citing a congressional order that bars him from public office until February 2011.

The ban was imposed on the basis of the criminal charges against Fujimori, which include embezzlement of public funds, paying his spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos $15 million, and authorizing a death squad to murder 25 people.

Despite repeated requests from Peru and an Interpol notice for Fujimori's arrest, Japan refused to hand him over, citing his Japanese citizenship and the lack of an extradition treaty between the two countries.

Fujimori has four children from a previous marriage with a Japanese-Peruvian woman. They divorced in 1995.