Fishing for Fujimori in Japan

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit

Fishing for Fujimori in Japan

The Peruvian government has now been officially asked by its Supreme
Court to request that Fujimori be extradited from Japan to face
charges that he ordered political opponents massacred.  Whether the
Cabinet will do so is interesting; even more interesting, if the
request is made, is what the Japanese response will be.  Their
willingness to provide harbor to Fujimori when he fled there, and
some of their earlier statements on extraditing citizens, were
disappointing to say the least.  And of course Fujimori will invoke
the Pinochet/Kissinger defense in his fight to block the extradition,
asserting sovereign immunity for misdeeds committed when acting as
Peru's President.

There is an interesting point to clarify around sovereign immunity:
to what extent can the sovereignty of a nation be invested in an
individual, thereby defining his actions as the instrumentality of a
people and beyond prosecution?  So far, the answer seems to be: it
depends.  If that indivdual or nation was socialist or Communist, not
at all (Milosovic); if that individual or nation was a fascist fuck,
absolutely (Pinochet, Kissinger, quite likely Fujimori, and isn't Idi
Amin still at large and untouchable - hell, not even being mentioned
as a possible indictee?)

AP via The New York times - May 30, 2002
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Peru-Japan-Fujimori.html


Fujimori Extradition Request OK'd

LIMA, Peru, May 30 (AP) -- Peru's Supreme Court asked the government
on Thursday to seek the extradition of disgraced ex-President Alberto
Fujimori from Japan to face trial for two state-sponsored massacres
in the early 1990s.

Supreme Court spokesman Andiolo Zevallos said the court sent an
extradition request to the Justice Ministry after approving it
Wednesday.

Justice Minister Fernando Olivera told reporters that the request
would be studied ``immediately.'' He said the request would be
reviewed by the full Cabinet.

The Foreign Ministry would then send the request to Japan, where
Fujimori has been in self-exile since his 10-year government
collapsed during a corruption scandal in November 2000.

Fujimori, the son of Japanese immigrants, was granted Japanese
citizenship shortly after his arrival in Japan. Japanese law
prohibits the extradition of citizens for crimes committed in other
countries.

The former president faces homicide and forced disappearance charges
for allegedly sanctioning two massacres of supposed guerrilla
sympathizers by a paramilitary death squad in 1991 and 1992.

Attorney General Nelly Calderon filed the charges in September 2001.

Fujimori denies the accusations and says he would face a political
circus rather than a fair trial in Peru.

``Whatever move Fujimori wants to make, we're going to fulfill our
duty to exhaust all the means so that justice can apply the law and
sanctions that correspond,'' Olivera said.

Fujimori is also accused of abandonment of office, dereliction of
duty and embezzlement. No extradition request for those charges has
been made yet.
 
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nytsa-05.31.02-18:11:23-27590