The former president of Peru Alejandro Toledo, claimed by the Justice of his country for corruption crimes, will remain free on bail until the appeal that he filed weeks ago against his extradition approved by the US Department of State is resolved.
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Judge Thomas S. Hixson, of the federal court for the Northern District of California, ruled this Thursday in favor of the defense of the former Peruvian president, who had asked him to wait for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco. resolve that appeal.
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Weeks ago, the Government of the United States had asked this judge that Toledo be placed in pretrial detention, since when his extradition was approved, he could increase the risk of flight.
Hixson decided this Thursday to maintain Toledo’s freedom, although he assured that if the Ninth Circuit determines that the extradition should go ahead, it will order the former Peruvian president to turn himself in.
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Both Toledo himself, who appeared virtually, and his lawyer, assured that the former president will turn himself in if they lose the appeal, while the federal prosecutors who intervened in this case insisted on requesting that he be detained.
The health situation of Toledo (76 years old) has been another of the arguments put forward by his legal representatives throughout the process, since they consider that the final resolution “could take months”, for which reason he “would languish waiting in a cell”.
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This aspect was taken into account by the magistrate, who explained that he has decided not to imprison the politician for the moment, because while the appeal is still alive there are no deadlines set for extradition.
Before the hearing began this Thursday, it was learned that Toledo has filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of State, but now before a court in Columbia (USA), for wanting to extradite him without following due process and having, supposedly, violated the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.
Toledo, who was president between 2001 and 2006, is accused in his country of receive tens of millions of dollars in bribes from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in exchange for favoring it in its business in Peru, when it was still president.
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Specifically, he has been investigated for money laundering, collusion and influence peddling for contracts awarded to Odebrecht for the construction of the Interoceanic Route between Brazil and Peru.
The former president was arrested in 2019 in California, where he has resided for the last few years, and spent 8 months in prison for risk of flight, although he was able to get out of jail when he was granted bail due to the pandemic.
Last September, the US Justice approved his extradition to Peru, having found sufficient evidence to justify this measure, although the final decision was in the hands of the State Department, which granted the extradition on February 23.
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In the Peruvian chapter of the “Odebrecht Case”, the largest corruption scandal in Latin America, former presidents Alan García (2006-2011), Ollanta Humala (2011-2016) and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-2018), as well as the three-time presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori.
EFE
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