SANTIAGO, Chile — Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori won a surprise victory Wednesday when a Chilean Supreme Court judge ruled that the ex-president can't be extradited to Peru to face human rights and corruption charges.
Judge Orlando Alvarez said that Peruvian prosecutors had failed to prove that the former leader was directly involved in the death squad killings he was accused of and that the charges were based on "mere speculations or hearsay."
On the corruption charges, Alvarez said Peruvian attorneys had "infringed upon the basic legal and constitutional requirements" of the extradition proceedings because the statute of limitations for some charges had already passed. He also threw out several charges because they were not crimes in Chile.
Human rights activists and relatives of death squad victims denounced the ruling and accused the judge of ignoring ample evidence pinning the blame for the killings on Fujimori.
Fujimori and his legal team cheered the decision, saying it vindicated the ex-president, who governed Peru from 1990 to 2000. Peruvian lawyers said they would appeal, although Chile's Supreme Court would review the case automatically.
The ruling was an unexpected turn in a dramatic story that began in November 2005, when Fujimori turned up unannounced in Chile after flying on a small plane from Japan, where he'd spent five years in exile after resigning from Peru's presidency.
Many speculated that Fujimori had returned to South America to run in Peru's April 2006 presidential elections, but Chilean authorities arrested the former leader hours after his arrival in the capital of Santiago when Peru requested his extradition.
Fujimori's case advanced last month after 19 months of legal maneuvering when an investigating attorney for the Chilean Supreme Court recommended that Fujimori be extradited, saying the charges against him in 12 cases were "overwhelming."
But Alvarez disagreed in his strongly worded opinion Wednesday.
In a statement, Fujimori said he felt vindicated. Alvarez, he said, "expresses what I have always maintained: my total lack of participation in the acts that my political detractors have baselessly imputed me with."
Human rights activists were dismayed.
"It's a shameful decision that could guarantee the impunity of Fujimori," said Gisela Ortiz, the sister of a student murdered in what's known as the La Cantuta killings tied to the government death squad.
"It's lamentable that the judge didn't understand Fujimori's responsibility for corruption and human rights violations. It would be terrible for a political leader to commit crimes and not be punished for them."
Ortiz said she had traveled to Chile eight times to plead her case with officials there and had met with Alvarez four times, along with human rights attorneys and the families of other death squad victims.
In the end, she said, Alvarez "didn't seem to understand anything of what we told him. I'm totally surprised. I came away from our meetings thinking he was persuaded of Fujimori's guilt."
Chilean courts have had a history of denying extradition requests.
Before Fujimori's surprise 2005 arrival, Chilean judges had turned down Peruvian requests to extradite two men, Eduardo Calmell del Solar and Daniel Borobio, accused by Peru of illicit association and influence peddling during Fujimori's reign.
Peru's Justice Minister Maria Zavala said Wednesday her country would immediately appeal Alvarez's ruling.
Asked by a reporter if the decision represented a defeat for Peru, Zavala said, "I see it from another point of view: The battle is lost but not the war."
While Fujimori remained under house arrest Wednesday, the court could grant him provisional freedom, Chilean attorneys said.
If Fujimori wins the appeal, he could stay on in Chile, possibly as a political refugee, they said.
Pablo Rojas, executive secretary of the Peruvian nonprofit National Coordinating Group for Human Rights, said Fujimori could not be tried on the same charges in the extradition petition if he wins his appeal and returns to Peru on his own.
Nonetheless, Peru's government would likely try him on other charges, including accusations that he ordered the execution of 42 inmates at the Castro Castro prison in 1992 and that he illegally dissolved the Congress in 1992.
Fujimori supporters in Peru cheered the decision Wednesday and predicted his political return.
Many Peruvians credit him for winning a bloody war against guerilla groups and rescuing the country from economic ruin. His detractors say Fujimori ruled autocratically and encouraged widespread government corruption.
"This is a fundamental step for the freedom of Fujimori, as well as proof of his innocence," said Carlos Raffo, a legislator belonging to Fujimori's party. "For Fujimoristas, this is a great day, but we're keeping calm and remaining cautious knowing that this is not the final word."
(McClatchy special correspondent Hughes reported from Santiago, Chang, from Asuncion, Paraguay, and Bridges, of The Miami Herald, from Lima, Peru.)
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