U.S. judge authorizes former President Toledo to leave home four hours a day

Photo: EFE

10:13 | San Francisco (U.S.), Aug. 29.

Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006) —who is under house arrest in the United States while a decision on his extradition process is made— will be allowed to leave his home for four hours a day, the judge who is handling the case decided on Friday.

According to a court order to which Efe Agency had access, Judge Thomas Hixson of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California agreed to the request made by the former president's lawyer, to which neither the prison services nor the Prosecutor's Office had opposed.

Although Toledo was detained by U.S. authorities in July 2019, most of the judicial process —to date— has focused on determining whether there was a risk of flight and whether or not the former president could get out of jail —

something to which the judge agreed last March because of the risk existing in prisons linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since then, the former president remains at home under house arrest, although the California prison services denounced in April that he had left his house four times to go to the beach and neighbors' homes, which earned him reprimands from the magistrate.

Since then, Toledo's behavior has adjusted to the conditions of house arrest. Thus, the judge decided to grant this request made by the lawyer.

The former president is accused of having received up to US$35 million from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in exchange for favoring it in its business in Peru, when he was still president.

He has also spent the last few years as fugitive from Peruvian justice in the San Francisco Bay area.

According to the investigations of the Peruvian Prosecutor's Office, Toledo received millionaire bribes from Odebrecht through Peruvian-Israeli businessman Josef Maiman, who allegedly later deposited that money into accounts in Costa Rica, including that of Ecoteva company, founded by the former president's mother-in-law Eva Fernenbug.

Maiman —who resides in Israel— agreed by the end of 2019 to become an "effective collaborator" of the Peruvian Prosecutor's Office, after declaring that he had lent his companies' accounts to receive some US$35 million from Odebrecht for Toledo.

For this reason, the former president is charged with the alleged commission of the crimes of money laundering, collusion and influence peddling.

In February 2017, Peru's Judiciary ordered the 18-month preventive detention of Toledo on influence peddling and asset laundering charges, within the framework of the Odebrecht case.

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(END) EFE/FHG/MVB

Published: 8/29/2020

U.S. judge authorizes former President Toledo to leave home four hours a day

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