Peru Formally Requests Former President's Extradition from Japan

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, July 31, 2003

Peru Formally Requests Former President's Extradition from Japan

The Peruvian government on Wednesday asked Japan to extradite former President Alberto Fujimori to face charges that he authorized massacres in Peru in the early 1990s.

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Peru Requests Former President's Extradition from Japan

The Peruvian government on Wednesday asked Japan to extradite former President Alberto Fujimori to face charges that he authorized massacres in Peru in the early 1990s.

"At this moment, the diplomatic note requesting the extradition of former President Alberto Fujimori, accompanied by the extradition file compiled by the supreme court, is being handed over in Japan," said Peruvian Foreign Minister Allan Wagner at a press conference.

The 700-page extradition request was submitted to the Japanese Foreign Ministry by Peruvian Ambassador to Japan Luis J. Macchiavello, government sources said.

Although the Peruvian government charged Fujimori with abandonment of office, embezzlement, homicide and violation of citizens' communications privacy, this time's extradition request applies only to the murder charge which says Fujimori was involvedin the massacre committed by a paramilitary death squad known as the "Colina Group."

The Japanese government has rejected the extradition of Fujimori, who has dual Peruvian-Japanese nationality, but in May the Japanese prosecutors questioned him in response to a request from the Peruvian government for cooperation in investigations.

Fujimori, 65, has denied the accusations and said the international arrest warrants were just propaganda of the Peruvianadministration.

Also on Wednesday, the Peruvian office of Amnesty International(AI) and other non-government organizations (NGO) presented the Japanese Embassy here a document signed by 22,000 citizens demanding the extradition of former President Alberto Fujimori.

The signatures came with a letter addressed to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

The document is part of an international campaign demanding theformer president appear before the Peruvian justice and respond tothe charges filed against him.

The dossier, translated into Japanese, would be handed over Thursday by Peruvian Ambassador to Japan, Luis Macchiavello, to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

Fujimori, who fled to Japan amid a serious political crisis arising from his controversial re-election, has been staying in Japan in exile since November 2000.

After 10 years in office since 1990, Fujimori announced on Nov.19 2000 in Tokyo, his resignation, which he sent to the Peruvian Congress by fax. He was sacked days later by the congress.

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