Extradition near for Peru ex-president, nation's third jailed leader

LIMA/WASHINGTON - Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo surrendered to US authorities on Friday, a US Marshals Service official told Reuters, a day after his last-ditch bid to block his extradition to Peru over corruption charges was denied.

The former leader's lawyer expressed dismay at the turn of events later on Friday.

Toledo, who has taught classes at Stanford University, is set to make history as the South American nation's third former president currently behind bars as he awaits prosecution.

Toledo, president from 2001 to 2006, is wanted in Peru over charges he received some $35 million from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in exchange for help in obtaining public works contracts. Prosecutors are seeking a 20-year prison sentence.

Toledo, 77, has denied soliciting or receiving bribes. On Thursday, a US federal judge denied his latest bid to block his extradition.

His lawyer, David Bowker, described his client as "profoundly saddened and disappointed" by the judge's decision, asserting Toledo is a victim of "political prosecution."

Bowker said Peru's justice system is "flawed" and the case against Toledo "rests largely on the unreliable testimony of two confessed criminals."

He added the former president "will never have a fair opportunity to ... prove his innocence."

Toledo will be moved to Peru's capital Lima in two or three days, Silvana Carrion, the local prosecutor handling the case, said on local broadcaster Canal N.

Toledo was arrested in the United States in 2019 after an extradition request by Peru's government. He was released on bail the following year and was recently living in California.

His surrender likely signals progress in Peru's anti-corruption fight and could lead to further revelations, according to David Waisman, Toledo's former vice president.

"I'm sure he's going to rat out the people involved in an effort to get his prison term shortened," Waisman told Reuters.

Authorities say Toledo is likely to be held in a prison outside Lima, where two other former presidents, right-wing Alberto Fujimori and leftist Pedro Castillo, are currently held.

Fujimori, who governed between 1990 and 2000, is serving a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses. Castillo is being held in pre-trial detention while under investigation for rebellion charges after trying to dissolve Congress in December.

Prosecutors have asked for 18 months of pre-trial detention for Toledo, an economist who won the presidency after a graft scandal involving Fujimori.

Nearly all of Peru's presidents over the past three decades have been accused of or investigated for corruption.

"This is a reflection of the work in the fight against corruption in the country, with all the problems it has," said criminal lawyer Carlos Caro.

Odebrecht acknowledged in a 2017 deal in the U.S. that it paid some $29 million to win concessions in Peru from 2005-2014 during the governments of Toledo, Alan Garcia and Ollanta Humala.

Former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, also under investigation for the Odebrecht case, was under house arrest on accusations of bribery but has since been released under restrictions. Garcia took his own life in 2019. —Reuters