RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo was arrested in the United States on Tuesday morning, July 16th, according to Peru’s Prosecutor’s Office.
The U.S. Department of Justice is complying with a request for Toledo to be extradited to his country of origin, where he was indicted for allegedly receiving a million-dollar bribe from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.
The former president was taken before a judge in California and will remain in custody at least until Friday, when he will be heard again, according to the U.S. authorities.
The Peruvian Embassy in Washington filed an extradition request with the State Department in May of last year.
Toledo’s lawyer told a radio station in Lima that the defense will attempt to prove in the U.S. that he is politically persecuted in his country.
The former Peruvian president has been living in California since the end of his mandate in 2006 and has been investigated for the alleged crimes of money laundering, conspiracy and influence peddling for more than two years.
According to preliminary investigations, Toledo requested a bribe of US$20 million from Odebrecht representatives in Peru to award them the concession for the construction of two sections of the southern Interoceanic Highway.
The money was transferred into company accounts of his friend, Josef Maiman, who in turn set up a company in Costa Rica with Toledos mother-in-law, to send sums back to Peru for purchasing properties.
In addition to Toledo, former Peruvian presidents Alan García (who ended up committing suicide when he was arrested), Ollanta Humala and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski were investigated under the Odebrecht case, as well as opposition leader Keiko Fujimori, who has been held in pre-trial detention for 36 months.