CHIBA CITY, Japan, April 19 (UPI) -- Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who has been living in exile in Japan since 2000, has said he will run in Peru's next presidential election.
In an interview with Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun, published Tuesday, Fujimori said standing as a candidate in Peru's presidential election scheduled for April 2006 was his goal, and that he was working toward achieving this.
In February, Peru's constitutional court upheld the Peruvian parliament's 2001 resolution to ban Fujimori from public office for 10 years. In response to this, Fujimori said, "The resolution is a political matter, and this can be solved politically."
Fujimori has been accused of over 10 crimes, including involvement in the military's killing of civilians and misappropriation of public funds.
"I'm not at all worried. There are no grounds to the suspicions," he said. Peru has been asking the Japanese government for Fujimori's extradition.
Fujimori said he had a strategy for returning to Peru, but could not say when he would return. "In any case, I will return," he said.
