Chile's Supreme Court prosecutor on Thursday recommended that former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori be extradited to Peru on corruption and human rights charges, the court announced.
Prosecutor Monica Maldonado made her non-binding recommendation ahead of a decision by Orlando Alvarez, the Supreme Court judge handling the Fujimori case.
Alvarez has no time limit for his decision, which will probably be appealed by either Fujimori or the Peruvian government, setting in motion a long legal process by five Supreme Court appellate judges.
PHOTO: AP
Altogether Fujimori, 69, faces in Peru 10 corruption charges and two for violating human rights during his 1990 to 2000 presidency.
The most serious charges involve a massacre by state forces at the Cantuta University in 1992, when nine students were killed.
In another key case, 15 people were killed in the Barrios Altos neighborhood of Lima in 1991.
Maldonado told reporters the evidence she reviewed in more than 13,000 documents in Fujimori's file was "devastating."
Fujimori, last month in a radio interview, vowed to respect the Chilean Supreme Court's ruling on Peru's extradition request.
His daughter Keiko Fujimori, an elected member of Peru's congress, also said on Thursday in Lima that her father would respect the Peruvian verdict.
"He's not going to run," she told reporters. "You can all rest assured. He will respect the verdict."
However, the 31-year-old lawmaker said there was "no guarantee my father will get due process in Peru," citing as an example an ongoing, seven-year investigation of two former Fujimori aides.
"There are worrying signs my father could face the same," she said.
Peru's Foreign Minister Jose Garcia Belaunde, however, assured Fujimori a fair trial if he is extradited, after he was told of Maldonado's decision.
Also in Peru, human rights groups and relatives of alleged victims of government abuses during the Fujimori years welcomed Maldonado's decision.
Maldonado's recommendation "should guide the Chilean state's overall response to Peru's extradition request," Pro-Human Rights Association president Francisco Soberon said.
Gisella Ortiz, a relative of one of the nine La Cantuta students murdered by a death squad in 1992, said she was "quite satisfied."
"Despite the long time the extradition process took, it was well worth the wait," she said.
Fujimori, an agronomist by training and the son of Japanese immigrants, was credited with reining in economic chaos and leftist insurgencies during his two consecutive terms in office. Critics say he achieved that by riding roughshod over civil liberties and human rights.
He unexpectedly arrived in Chile's capital in November 2005 after living in exile in Japan since 2000. He was detained by authorities for six months until he was granted provisional release barring him from leaving Chile.
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