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Fujimori to be extradited and put on trial in Peru

Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori was expected to be extradited from Chile to Peru yesterday to face trial on charges of corruption and the killing of 25 people by death squads during his rule.

A Peruvian police airplane flew out of the border city of Tacna late on Friday on its way to Santiago to pick up Fujimori hours after Chile's Supreme Court ordered his extradition.

It was expected to return to Peru with the former president by about midday yesterday.

Peruvian police chief General David Rodriguez discussed details of Fujimori's transfer with his Chilean counterparts in Tacna on Friday.

The extradition will bring Fujimori back to his home country after seven years in exile following his 1990-2000 rule.

"We have awarded the extradition," announced Chilean Judge Alberto Chaigneau on Friday. The court's decision was based on the weight of the human rights charges, which alleged responsibility for two massacres, Chaigneau said.

Fujimori, 69, who had earlier hoped to make a triumphant political comeback, now could face up to 40 years behind bars.

His daughter Keiko Fujimori, a Peruvian congresswoman, called on supporters to show up at the Lima airport to give him a warm welcome.

"I call on Fujimoristas to mobilize ... we will demonstrate that he is innocent of the charges," she said at a news conference.

Rights groups and relatives of the victims of Fujimori's regime hailed the Chilean judges' ruling.

"This is the first time that a court has ordered the extradition of a former head of state to be tried for gross human rights violations in his home country," the US-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

Gisella Ortiz sobbed as she heard the news.

"We have been waiting 15 years for justice," said Ortiz, who lost her brother in the 1992 massacre at Lima's La Cantuta University.

Fujimori is accused of responsibility in the killing of nine students and a professor at La Cantuta and in the death of a further 15 people in Lima in 1991.

The acts were carried out by the army's Colina Group squadron during the Fujimori government's bloody campaign against the Maoist Shining Path insurgency.

Fujimori is also accused of ordering the kidnapping and torture of political opponents. In addition to the two human rights charges, the Chilean judges recognized five charges of corruption, including one over the alleged misuse of US$15 million in public funds.

"Democracy will demonstrate it is morally superior to the dictatorship once the case gets under wary," said Peruvian Prime Minister Jorge de Castillo, insisting Fujimori will be treated with "equity and justice."

Fujimori fled Peru in 2000 amid a corruption scandal and resigned by fax from a Tokyo hotel.

Once known as a master strategist, the Japanese-Peruvian politician appeared to have miscalculated when he was detained in Chile in 2005 on his way to Peru where he hoped to make a political comeback.

Fujimori was officially notified of the court decision in Santiago and his defense lawyer said he had accepted the ruling.
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