Interpol reissues Fujimori warrant
LIMA, Peru (AP) -- Interpol reissued an international arrest warrant charging former Peru President Alberto Fujimori with murder after receiving additional information from the government, officials said Saturday.
Interpol suspended the original warrant February 27 and gave Peruvian officials 14 days to provide evidence tying Fujimori to a paramilitary death squad and to demonstrate that the charges were not politically motivated.
Peruvian Justice Minister Fausto Alvarado told RPP radio Saturday that officials sent evidence to Interpol headquarters in Paris and the warrant -- on charges of murder, causing grievous bodily harm and forced disappearances -- was reinstated.
Prosecutors have accused Fujimori of authorizing the 1991 massacre of 15 revelers at a barbecue in a poor Lima neighborhood and the 1992 killings of nine university students and a professor.
The former president has lived in Japan since fleeing a corruption scandal that toppled his decade-long regime in November 2000. He denies the charges.
Peru repeatedly has demanded that Japan extradite Fujimori. But Tokyo, which once strongly supported the former president, says it cannot turn him over to Peru because he is a Japanese citizen.
Fujimori was born in Peru but is the son of Japanese immigrants.
On Sunday, a spokeswoman for Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said the government has not yet received Peru's request to hand over Fujimori. When it does, the request will be handled "through the legal channels."
"Unless there is a specific agreement between countries to hand over a criminal suspect, we can't hand over someone who has Japanese nationality," spokeswoman Misako Kaji told The Associated Press.
Interpol also has issued a warrant on charges Fujimori misused public funds to give his former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos $15 million in severance pay. Montesinos currently is being tried in Peru on corruption charges.
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