Santiago, Chile – Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori said Friday he refuses to appear before the courts in Peru because he lacks confidence in its justice system.
One day after being freed on bail by Chile’s Supreme Court, Fujimori vehemently denied the corruption and human rights charges filed against him by the Peruvian government in its request to Chile for its extradition.
He admitted that “some isolated cases” of human rights abuses occurred during his 1990-2000 administration, but said they happened against specific orders he issued to the military forces fighting a bloody wave of terrorism.
Fujimori talked to reporters from a vehicle in the street in front of a house he rented at the upper-class Las Condes Santiago neighborhood, where he will remain while fighting extradition to Peru.
Fujimori had been held since his surprise arrival here in November from Japan where he had lived in exile for five years.
Peru has filed 12 formal charges against Fujimori, including sanctioning a paramilitary death squad, illegal phone tapping, diverting public funds and bribing legislators.
Fujimori has repeatedly denied the charges, calling them an attempt to block a political comeback.
The 67-year-old former authoritarian ruler said Peru’s justice system does not meet international standards. As evidence, he cited what he claimed was Peru’s handling of an audit to help determine illegal enrichment charges.
He claimed that an independent firm conducted the study and filed a report. “This report was not made public, but hidden, because it totally denied the accusations that there was an illegal enrichment,” he said.
He said he condemns the human rights violations, and noted that they occurred as Peru was in the middle of a bloody war on terrorism.
“We lament that isolated cases occurred, but using those isolated cases to accuse me is totally unjustified,” he added.
“Isolated cases do not mean that a civilian president, was democratically elected, has commited the abuses or has been involved in them,” Fujimori said.
