Former Peruvian leader freed from jail

A smiling Alberto Fujimori left prison today in Chile where the former Peruvian president is fighting extradition to his homeland on corruption and human rights charges.

Earlier, Chile’s Supreme Court voted to allow the former authoritarian leader to go free on bail after almost seven months behind bars, but prohibited him from leaving Chile pending a trail on the extradition question.

“Obviously, I am very satisfied, very happy,” he told reporters. “I am leaving in then same conditions as I arrived here.”

“I feel confident and I am going to be patient,” he said as he left the academy for corrections officers where he was held since his surprise arrival here from Japan in early November, 2005.

Fujimori’s lawyers posted the 1.5 million peso (£1,524) bail set by the judge handling the extradition trial, allowing the 67-year-old former authoritarian walk free.

After his brief comments, he left in a sport utility vehicle to a rented house in the upper-class Santiago neighbourhood of Las Condes.

Small groups of Fujimori supporters and foes gathered at academy’s entrance were kept at a distance.

Fujimori arrived in Chile last November from Tokyo, saying he was ending five years of exile in Japan in order to run in Peru’s presidential elections.

He was arrested upon arrival after the Peruvian government requested his extradition.