Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, August 01, 2003
No Proof Whatsoever, Says Fujimori of Extradition Request
Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori said on Thursday that "there is not a single line of proof" in the extradition request presented by Peru to Japan.
Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori said on Thursday that "there is not a single line of proof" in the extradition request presented by Peru to Japan.
Earlier on Thursday, Peru's ambassador in Tokyo, Luis Macchiavello, delivered the 700-page extradition request to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, accusing Fujimori of masterminding massacres that killed 25 people in 1991 and 1992.
In a communique reaching here from the Japanese capital, Tokyo,Fujimori asked: "How can it happen that in the entire file there is not a single line of proof?"
Fujimori, who fled to Japan amid a serious political crisis arising from his controversial re-election, has been living in Japan in exile since November 2000.
Following 10 years in office since 1990, Fujimori announced on Nov. 19 2000 in Tokyo, his resignation, which he sent to the Peruvian Congress by fax. He was sacked days later by the congress.
The former leader, who has dual nationalities of Japan and Peru,also dismissed the accusation that involves him in the killing of 15 civilians in 1991, in the neighborhood of Barrios Altos in Lima,and the disappearance of nine students and a professor of La Cantuta University in 1992.
"I am completely innocent," Fujimori stressed, charging that the extradition bid was a plot by oppositions to keep him from returning to Peru to resume his political life.
However, Judge Jose Lecaros of Peru's Supreme Court emphasized the need for the extradition request on Thursday. "The citizens want Japan to understand that it is a need for the Peruvian peopleto have a fair trial with the guarantees of process, under international supervision. Peru needs to know the truth," he said.
Lecaros ruled out a political persecution against the former president as the Peruvian government has no intervention in judicial affairs.
Japan admitted Fujimori's identity and rejected the extradition,saying that a Japanese citizen is subject to trials in Japan and there is no extradition treaty between the two countries