Chilean judge rejects Peru's request for former President Fujimori's extradition

SANTIAGO.- A Chilean Supreme Court judge on Wednesday rejected Peru's request to extradite its former President Alberto Fujimori to face charges of corruption and human rights violations.

Judicial branch spokesman Cristián Fuenzalida said judge Orlando Álvarez issued the ruling favoring Fujimori, who is wanted in Perú on charges including bribery, misuse of government funds and sanctioning death squad killings during his decade-long rule that ended in 2000.

One of the ex-President’s lawyers in Chile, Francisco Veloso, told radio RPP that "from day one, we doubted that Fujimori was involved in the acts they accused him of".

Fujimori’s allies in Perú reacted with caution, figuring that the judicial process may not be over yet. Carlos Raffo, a congressman with Fujimori’s Alliance for the Future party, said appeals from the Peruvian government are likely.

It wasn't immediately clear what Fujimori’s next move will be. He's been on house arrest awaiting the court’s ruling, and while he has long sought to return to the presidency in Peru, he has agreed to first run for parliament in Japan on a minor party's slate.

"I still have my followers in Peru, and many of them are happy because a political party in such an important country as Japan has called on me to run. This is something very important for them", Fujimori, who holds both Peruvian and Japanese citizenship, told The Associated Press in an interview last month.