Former president of Peru Alejandro Toledo turned himself in to the US Marshals Service on Friday, after a choose rejected the movement to dam his extradition to Lima on prices of receiving bribes.
Peruvian prosecutors issued a warrant for Toledo’s arrest in 2017, accusing the previous president of accepting almost $32 million in bribes from the Brazilian development firm Odebrecht whereas he was in workplace, between 2001 and 2006. He was jailed in 2019 however launched on bail and positioned beneath home arrest at his residence in Menlo Park, California pending extradition proceedings.
Earlier this week, the 77-year-old misplaced his case earlier than the Ninth Circuit federal courtroom of appeals, leaving him with no choices to keep away from being despatched to Peru. Toledo faces as much as 20 years in jail if convicted. He has denied all allegations.
Peruvian authorities say two witnesses can show Toledo accepted bribes in change for giving Odebrecht the contract to construct a portion of the Interoceanic Freeway connecting Peru to Brazil.
Each single elected president of Peru since 1990 has confronted corruption prices. Toledo’s predecessor Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) was convicted and is presently in jail, whereas his successor Alan Garcia dedicated suicide in 2019, earlier than he could possibly be arrested within the Odebrecht case. Ollanta Humala (2011-2016), Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-2018), Martin Vizcarra (2018-2020) and Pedro Castillo (2021-2022) are presently both beneath investigation or on trial.
Castillo was ousted in December 2022, when he tried to dissolve Congress and name new elections. The highly effective legislature impeached the president and named Vice President Dina Boluarte as his alternative till 2026.
As a part of a plea cope with the US authorities in 2016, Odebrecht admitted to paying $788 million in bribes to varied South American governments. The scandal led to the largest-ever corruption probe in Brazilian historical past, generally known as Lava Jato (Automotive Wash). Brazilian President Dilma Roussef was impeached over the scandal, whereas her predecessor Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva ended up in jail. Lula was re-elected president in 2022, after an appeals courtroom voided his conviction as unjust, nonetheless.
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