Peru’s former president Alejandro Toledo was handed over to a San Jose court on Friday after a California judge ordered him detained days ago, following the rejection of an appeal to prevent his extradition to his home country – which Lima sought from the 2018 and the State Department approved it in February.

The 77-year-old Toledo is accused by Peruvian justice of corruption: he allegedly received 20 million dollars during his presidential term (2001-2006) from the Brazilian construction group Odebrecht in exchange for public works contracts.

After a warrant was issued for his arrest in 2017, Toledo fled to the United States. He was arrested in 2019 in the USA, after working at Stanford University, from which he had obtained a doctorate. He was initially jailed, then placed under house arrest in San Francisco while required to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet.

If convicted by Peruvian justice, he faces up to 20 years in prison. He denies the accusations against him and maintains that he is a victim of political persecution. Prosecutor Silvana Carrion told Canal N television that she believes the extradition of Alejandro Toledo to Peru will be completed within the next three days.

Toledo is expected to be taken to the prison where two other former Peruvian presidents, Alberto Fujimori and Pedro Castillo, are being held. He is one of seven former Peruvian presidents convicted or facing criminal charges for corruption: the list also includes Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), Oyada Umala (2011-2016), Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-2018) , Martin Vizcarra (2018-2020) and Pedro Castillo (2021-2022). Another former president, Alan Garcia, killed himself to avoid arrest in 2019.

The Odebrecht case is the biggest corruption scandal in Latin America. According to the US State Department, the Brazilian construction group had bribed politicians and businessmen from 12 countries, spending a total of nearly $800 million.