WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Lawyers for former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo filed for an emergency stay in U.S. federal court on Thursday to block his extradition to Peru, where he faces corruption charges.
The lawyers argued in their early morning filing that a stay of his detention and extradition was “necessary to avoid imminent and irreparable harm of an erroneous deprivation of liberty, and possibly also life” if he is extradited on the Friday deadline set by a judge in California.
Toledo on Wednesday asked the U.S. District Court in Washington to reconsider its March 28 refusal to approve a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order.
The federal court has yet to rule on either issue.
Toledo, who was president from 2001 to 2006, is wanted over charges that he received more than $25 million from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in exchange for help in obtaining public works contracts. Prosecutors are seeking a 20-year prison sentence.
Toledo has denied soliciting or receiving bribes and has not been criminally charged in the United States.
The former president was arrested in the United States in July 2019 after a formal request by Peru for his extradition. He was released on bail in 2020 and was living in California until at least last year.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Mike Scarcella; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
