Israel bars entry of embattled former Peruvian president

Seeking to avoid a diplomatic crisis, Israel said it will not admit former Peruvian president Toledo into the country until his affairs are settled in Peru.

Israel said on Sunday it will not admit former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo into the country until his affairs are settled in Peru.

Toledo is on the run and is wanted in connection with a corruption and bribary probe in his country. Last week, a Peruvian court ordered the arrest and detention of Toledo as prosecutors investigate whether he took $20 million in payments from the giant Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in exchange for favoring the company in a contract to build a major highway from Brazil to Peru’s Pacific coast.

Peru had been informed by US authorities that they were not planning to keep Toledo from boarding a flight to Israel from California that was scheduled to land in Tel Aviv Sunday.

“Former Peru President Toledo will be allowed into Israel only when his matters are settled in Peru,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said, without elaborating.

The Foreign Ministry later said that Toledo was not on a flight from San Francisco that landed Sunday night.

Toledo’s wife has Israeli citizenship and he planned to take advantage of it to seek refuge in the country, which does not have an extradition treaty with the South American nation.

In a posting on his Twitter account late Sunday, Toledo denied that he is a fugitive, saying that “I have never run away.” But he did not say where he was and did not say if he would return to Peru.

By: World Israel News Staff
AP contributed to this report.