Peru's Cabinet has approved a dozen criminal cases against Alberto Fujimori, a key step toward formally requesting the former president be extradited from Chile to face charges including allegedly sanctioning two death squad massacres.
President Alejandro Toledo's Cabinet on Friday signed off on 12 of 17 cases against Fujimori, said Antonio Maldonado, Peru's anti-corruption attorney in charge of overseeing criminal cases against the former president now under arrest in Santiago, Chile.
The Supreme Court earlier this month prepared the 17 extradition charges against Fujimori that must be approved by the executive branch before Peru's Foreign Ministry presents them to the Chilean government.
Maldonado declined to say which charges had been approved during the special session in the government palace. He told reporters that the 16-member Cabinet had decided to send the other five criminal cases against Fujimori back to court officials for further review.
Foreign Minister Oscar Maurtua told the official newspaper El Peruano on Thursday that the Cabinet had called the "extraordinary session" so that a formal extradition request can be presented to Chilean authorities by a Jan. 6 deadline.
"The public can rest assured that Peru will deliver the cases," Maurtua said.
"I am sure we will make it on time," he said.
The cases include the killing of 25 people in two death squad massacres, illegal phone tapping, diversion of state funds to the intelligence service, bribing of politicians and the transfer of US$15 million to Fujimori's spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos.
Fujimori has denied all the accusations, saying they're part of efforts to sabotage his plans to run again for the presidency.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in