Lima, Peru – Peru’s former president, now under arrest in Chile, will wed his longtime Japanese girlfriend in the coming weeks, a spokesman for the ex-leader said Sunday.
Alberto Fujimori, who is of Japanese ancestry, fled to Japan in November 2000 as his decade-old authoritarian government crumbled amid corruption scandals.
Last November, Fujimori flew to Chile as part of a plan to launch a political comeback but was detained on an international arrest warrant at the request of Peru, which is seeking his extradition to face criminal charges.
Satomi Kataoka, a Japanese hotel magnate, announced at a Lima disco Saturday night that she will marry the former president sometime before Peru’s presidential election, his spokesman Carlos Raffo told The Associated Press. The election is April 9.
Kataoka was in Peru to support pro-Fujimori candidates.
Fujimori faces charges in Peru including sanctioning a death squad accused of murdering 25 people, illegal phone tapping, bribing lawmakers and transferring $15 million to his spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos.
The former president has denied any wrongdoing.
In February, Chile’s Supreme Court rejected Fujimori’s appeal to be released from prison or placed under house arrest while fighting Peru’s extradition request.
