Fujimori held by Peru authorities
Former president extradited from Chile to face human rights and corruption charges.
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Fujimori’s administration collapsed seven years ago and prosecutors in Peru want to try him on charges of embezzling $15 million and using excessive force to combat the Maoist rebel group, the Shining Path.
Fujimori, who ruled Peru between 1990 and 2000, has been under house arrest in Chile since November 2005.
On Friday, Fujimori, who says the charges are politically motivated, acknowledged that his government had made mistakes, but said his conscience is clear.
“This does not mean that I’ve been tried, much less convicted. … I hope that in Peru there exists the due process to clarify the accusations against me,” he told the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio on Saturday.
Embezzlement charges
Fujimori has said he will fight to clear his name [AFP] |
But while acknowledging “gross failures” in office, Fujimori told Peru’s RPP radio: “In the trials themselves, I will show that I acted in a correct manner.”
“I call on Fujimoristas to mobilise … we will demonstrate that he is innocent of the charges,” she said at a news conference.
Peru has pledged a fair trial and dignified treatment for the former president during his detention.
“Democracy will demonstrate it is morally superior to the dictatorship once the case gets under way,” Jorge de Castillo, Peruvian prime minister said on Saturday.
Fujimori was born to Japanese parents and, after fleeing Peru in 2000, he spent five years in Japan where he later resigned as president via a fax message.
Japan confirmed Fujimori’s citizenship and consistently refused extradition requests from Lima before he flew unannounced to Chile in 2005 to launch another bid for Peru’s presidency.
While under house arrest in Santiago, Fujimori even made an unsuccessful attempt to be elected to Japan’s parliament, a candidacy that critics in Peru saw as another bid to avoid prosecution.