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Fujimori to decide on Japan candidacy in next days
Posted: 27 June 2007 0636 hrs


LIMA - Peruvian former president Alberto Fujimori, under house arrest in Chile, will announce before Friday if he will be a candidate for a legislative seat in Japan, his spokesman in Lima said Tuesday.

Fujimori spokesman Carlos Raffo, who is also a congressman with the ex-president's Alliance for the Future party, did not say who would make the announcement or where it would be made.

The ex-president's enemies say Fujimori's attempt to run for office in Japan is a maneuver to avoid a likely extradition and trial in Peru.

Fujimori has been under arrest in Santiago since he unexpectedly arrived in Chile in November 2005, hoping to run in Peru's 2006 presidential election.

Peruvian authorities however want him extradited to face human rights abuse and corruption charges stemming from his 1990-2000 presidency.

In a surprise move, on June 18 representatives of Japan's Popular Party came to Santiago offering the ex-president to run for the National Diet of Japan in July.

Fujimori, who is also a Japanese citizen, is eligible to hold office in Japan, where he had lived for five years until his detention in Chile.

In Santiago, the judge that will rule on the extradition, Orlando Alvarez, is set to be back at work on Wednesday after a 20-day sick leave, the Chilean daily El Mercurio reported.

Alvarez does not have a time limit to rule in the Fujimori case, but according to El Mercurio, is expected to issue a ruling before the end of July.

Fujimori moved to Japan in 2000 when news of rampant corruption in Peru prompted him to flee. He resigned the presidency by fax from a Tokyo hotel.

Fujimori was born in Peru, but his parents were Japanese. The Japanese government granted him citizenship, then refused to extradite him to Peru.

As president of Peru Fujimori was widely credited with reining in economic chaos and leftist insurgencies.

Critics say however, that in the process he crushed civil liberties, rigged elections and abused human rights.

- AFP /ls