Fujimori planning return to Peru

LIMA, Peru - Peru's disgraced former president, Alberto Fujimori, has picked up a new passport at Peru's consulate in Tokyo -- the latest move in his strategy to return and seek reelection, his spokesman said.

Fujimori fled to Tokyo in 2000 at the height of a government corruption scandal and has been living in self-imposed exile, protected from criminal charges of human rights abuses and corruption by his dual citizenship.

"It's clear this is another step by Fujimori on his comeback path," spokesman Carlos Raffo told Reuters in Lima. Fujimori was issued a new Peruvian identity card in July.

Japan, which has no extradition treaty with Peru, has so far refused to act on Lima's requests that it extradite Fujimori to face criminal charges of corruption and human rights abuses over the death-squad murder of 25 people.

Fujimori, Peru's hard-line ruler from 1990 to 2000, denies all charges and says he is a victim of political persecution.

Despite the threat of instant arrest if he sets foot in Peru, and a 10-year ban on holding office that still has five years to run, Fujimori has vowed to return to Peru for presidential elections in April 2006 that he says he will win.

Election officials say they cannot rule on whether his candidacy would be valid until he presents it. Presidential candidates have until January to register.

Peru's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Fujimori had been granted a passport as permitted by law but added that "this latest action ... reveals once again his systematic fraudulent and ambivalent conduct -- claiming Peruvian citizenship to try to exercise political rights while barred from office and simultaneously using his Japanese citizenship to avoid facing justice for the crimes he is accused of."

International police organisation Interpol has issued a worldwide notice for Fujimori's arrest -- although that can only be used by national police to make a provisional arrest if he leaves Japan.

The son of Japanese immigrants to Peru, Fujimori is considered a Japanese citizen because his parents registered him with consular authorities when he was a baby. He has enjoyed celebrity status in Tokyo, where many remember him for his successful handling of a 126-day hostage crisis at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima in 1996-97.

- REUTERS