A federal judge in the United States on Thursday rejected a request submitted by former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006) to stop an arrest warrant against him in order to extradite him to Peru; where he is accused of corruption in the Odebrecht case.
The Court of the District of Columbia rejected this afternoon the motion of urgency presented hours before by Toledo’s lawyers. They explained that they did not present new arguments to defend their case.
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Toledo’s lawyers argued before the court that the extradition process must be analyzed by the judicial branch independently. This is how judge Beryl Howell outlined in her decision.
With this Thursday’s ruling, an arrest warrant issued Wednesday by California Judge Thomas Hixson to send Toledo to Peru remains in place.
Toledo must be delivered on Friday
The former president is forced to turn himself in to the authorities this Friday morning. He will do so at the Robert F. Peckham Building, headquarters of the Northern District of California Court, in the city of San José.
Toledo, who lives in San Francisco, delayed the arrest process – to be extradited – through various legal resources. This should have happened on April 7.
The Ninth Circuit of Appeals ended up denying the former president’s request for a new hearing to reconsider his delivery to Peru. Reason why the US Attorney’s Office asked the judge on Wednesday to reactivate the arrest warrant.
Toledo, 77, was arrested in 2019 in California and spent 8 months in prison for risk of flight. Although he went under house arrest in March 2020, with the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic.
Accused in Peru in the Odebrecht case
Last September, the US Justice gave the green light for his extradition to Peru. Opinion after finding sufficient evidence to justify this measure, endorsed in February of this year by the Department of State.
Toledo is charged in his country for receiving some 34 million dollars from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. The former president acquired millionaire real estate properties in Peru through a network of companies in tax havens.
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The Odebrecht case, the largest corruption scandal in Latin America, also affected former Peruvian presidents Alan García (1985-1990 and 2006-2011), Ollanta Humala (2011-2016) and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-2018). As well as the three-time presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, daughter and political heir of former president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000).