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SANTIAGO : A Chilean judge placed former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori under house arrest Friday ahead of a Supreme Court ruling on his extradition to Peru, the court said.
The order was requested earlier Friday by Lima government lawyers a day after Chile's Supreme Court prosecutor recommended that Fujimori be extradited to Peru to face charges of corruption and human rights violations, the court announced.
The Peru lawyers cited the citing the "gravity" of the accusations against him, altogether 10 charges for corruption and two for violating human rights during his 1990-2000 presidency.
The most serious charges allege his culpability as president in the 1992 massacre by state forces at Cantuta University, where nine students were killed, and the killing of 15 people in the Barrios Altos neighbourhood of Lima in 1991, blamed on a military death squad.
In an interview in El Mercurio daily Friday, Fujimori said that he was at peace as he awaited the Supreme Court's decision following prosecutor Monica Maldonado's non-binding recommendation.
"I am calm and serene, taking the report with prudence and serenity," Fujimori told the.
"I don't want to make predictions about court proceedings, but I do not see it as a loss," he said.
Fujimori has been free to move about inside Chile since May 2006, but was not permitted to leave the country while Lima's extradition request was processed.
He arrived in the country unexpectedly in November 2005 after living in exile in Japan since 2000 and was placed under detention for six months.
An agronomist by training and the son of Japanese immigrants, Fujimori was credited with reining in economic chaos and leftist insurgencies during his two consecutive terms as Peru's president. Critics say he achieved that by riding roughshod over civil liberties and human rights.
Orlando Alvarez, the Supreme Court judge handling the Fujimori case, has no time limit for his decision, which will probably be appealed by either Fujimori or the Peruvian government, setting in motion a long legal process involving five Supreme Court appellate judges.
Maldonado told reporters the evidence she reviewed in more than 13,000 documents in Fujimori's file was "devastating."
Last month in a radio interview, Fujimori vowed to respect the Chilean Supreme Court's ruling on the extradition request.
His daughter Keiko Fujimori, an elected member of Peru's congress, also said Thursday in Lima that her father would respect the Peruvian verdict.
"He's not going to run," she told reporters. "You can all rest assured. He will respect the verdict."
However, the 31-year-old lawmaker said there was "no guarantee my father will get due process in Peru," citing as an example an ongoing, seven-year investigation of two of his former aides.
"There are worrying signs my father could face the same," she said.
Following Maldonado's recommendation, Peru's Foreign Minister Jose Garcia Belaunde assured Fujimori he would receive a fair trial if he is extradited.
- AFP /ls
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