According to AFP reporters, Toledo was taken by police helicopter to the same prison on Sunday night (local time) where ex-presidents Pedro Castillo and Alberto Fujimori are also imprisoned. According to the judiciary, Toledo will initially spend 18 months in custody. According to their own statements, the judiciary had rejected a previous request for house arrest.
The 77-year-old, who is accused of corruption and money laundering in Peru, appeared before a federal court in San Jose, California on Friday and was taken into custody by police officers from the responsible US Marshals Service.
Toledo, who was President of Peru from 2001 to 2006, has lived in the United States for the past few years. He is accused in connection with the corruption scandal involving the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. According to investigators, Toledo received millions of dollars from Odebrecht in exchange for public works contracts. Toledo denies the allegations.
Peru had already applied to the United States for the extradition of the ex-president in 2018. Toledo was then arrested in California in July 2019 and released to house arrest the following year. He lodged numerous appeals against his extradition. A US federal appeals court rejected the last corresponding application last Tuesday.
The Brazilian Odebrecht group is at the center of a widespread corruption scandal that has swept through numerous Latin American countries in recent years. In some countries, the cases of corruption surrounding Odebrecht triggered political crises.
