Peru’s ex-president Toledo faces arrest for graft

LIMA: Prosecutors in Peru requested the arrest of former president Alejandro Toledo Tuesday over accusations he took a US$ 20-million bribe from scandalplagued Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht.

A judge now has 48 hours to decide whether to grant the request to jail Toledo for 18 months of ‘preventive custody’ as prosecutors prepare their case against him on charges of money laundering and influence peddling, the attorney general’s office said.

Toledo, Peru’s president from 2001 to 2006, came to office on a promise to clean up politics after a dirty decade under ex-president Alberto Fujimori, who is today in prison for corruption and human rights violations.

The mounting case against him has caused shock in Peru since reports emerged earlier this month that he took a massive bribe to ensure Odebrecht won the juicy contract for a highway linking Brazil and Peru.

Investigators raided Toledo’s house in Lima on Saturday, carting off documents.

The former president is currently believed to be in Paris, and prosecutors argue he poses a flight risk.

Theaccusationsemergedfromthe giant scandal in Brazil involving the state oil company there, Petrobras, which was bilked for billions of dollars over the course of a decade by corrupt executives, politicians and contractors — including Odebrecht. —AFP