International police agency Interpol will not act on Peru's request it locate disgraced former President Alberto Fujimori, in self-exile in Japan, because it has not ruled out that he is a victim of political persecution, a magistrate said last night.
"Japanese Interpol has not yet located Fujimori's residence, and it has said that it ... will not do so because it has not ruled out that this might be about political persecution," Supreme Court magistrate Jose Luis Lecaros told Reuters.
The government of President Alejandro Toledo says it wants to see Mr Fujimori, who fled to Japan in November 2000 at the height of a corruption scandal, on trial in Peru for human rights abuse and corruption charges.
Mr Fujimori, who ruled Peru with an iron fist from 1990 to 2000, denies any wrongdoing. He was fired by Congress as "morally unfit" and fled to Japan during a scandal triggered when his spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos was seen in secretly taped videos handing cash to an opposition politician.
Mr Fujimori says he is a victim of political persecution and would not receive a fair trial in Peru.
Mr Fujimori, who has dual Japanese-Peruvian citizenship, has so far been protected from being sent back to Peru because Japan does not as a rule extradite its citizens, and because Peru and Japan share no extradition treaty.