Alejandro Toledo: Peru ex-president faces corruption charges after US arrest.

Pedro_P

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Toledo is a fugitive from Peru for allegedly receiving $20m from a Brazilian construction company.

Alejandro Toledo, Peru’s former president, was arrested in northern California on Tuesday. Photograph: Martín Mejía/Associated Press
▼  Peru’s former president Alejandro Toledo has been arrested in the United States following an extradition from his home country where he faces corruption charges.
Toledo, who governed from 2001 to 2006, was arrested in northern Californiaon Tuesday and ordered held in custody pending a hearing on Friday, according to the US Justice Department.
The former president is a fugitive from Peruvian justice for allegedly receiving $20m from Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction company at the center of Latin America’s biggest  corruption scandal.
Odebrecht has admitted to paying $800m to officials throughout the region in exchange for lucrative public works contracts.
Peruformally requested his extradition from the United States a year ago.
“This will be the ex-president’s first appearance before US judicial authorities, as part of the process aiming to return him to the country,” the Public Ministry said in a post.
Toledo is one of four former  Peruvian presidentsto be sucked into the vast Odebrecht scandal: Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was arrested in Aprilover allegations of bribery linked to the investigation. His predecessor Ollanta Humala was detained in 2017 and awaits trial.
Humala’s predecessor, Alan Garcia, shot himself in the head  to avoid arrestin April, also in connection with alleged bribes from the Brazilian builder.
Heriberto Benítez, Toledo’s lawyer in Lima, told local radio station RPP that the defense will try to show that the ex-president faces political persecution in Peru.
Toledo, 73, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. He had been a visiting scholar at Stanford University as recently as 2017, though the school has said it was an unpaid position.
In March, the San Mateo county sheriff’s office said Toledo was arrested on suspicion of public intoxication and was briefly detained.

► This news was originally published here: Source

Rhett_Bassard

Arrested in San Mateo county, next to San Francisco, a 'sanctuary' city for Latinos.
I wonder if Toledo will play that card as do many Guatemalans, Salvadorans, and Mexicans?

Pedro_P

Rhett Bassard 16-7-2019 06:08 PM
Arrested in San Mateo county, next to San Francisco, a 'sanctuary' city for Latinos.
I wonder if To ...

I do not believe that the United States and its government want to get their hands dirty by protecting a character that is as corrupt as Alejandro Toledo is... I trust that the US judicial system will grant extradition in favor of the Peruvian State.
The corrupt ones abound in this part of the world, those who protect them, end up becoming accomplices.
I hope Toledo pays behind bars, all his crimes.

themaskeditor

US should extradite him for trail in his home country, but they should also be sure that he will not be a victim of political rivalry.

Something similar should happen with our beloved Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, they should be extradited to India from the respective countries.

If proven guilty of corruption they should be behind the bars for lifetime with no parole and no mercy.

ssangra

The only thing important to America is Dollars. He has plenty and anyone having plenty of dollars and who wishes to spend these in America is welcome there. They even given him or her immediate citizenship.

Pedro_P

Do not fall into generalizations.
The systems of justice in the countries, should operate blindly and impartially... Unfortunately that ideal is not always fulfilled.
However, within the imperfections of the Peruvian judicial system, for the first time in the history of the country, there are predictable results regarding the corruption trials... Rather, what is happening is a victimization on the part of the corrupt and their defenders, who try to escape from the long arm of the law.