Fujimori leaves jail as Chile weighs Peru's extradition request
His release came after the Supreme Court decided he could be freed during the extradition review, expected to take another month.
"Obviously I am pleased, happy, about the Supreme Court decision," a smiling Fujimori told reporters as he left the Santiago jail where he had been held since November.
His release sparked concerns in Peru that Fujimori would flee, but the ex-leader denied that he would try to leave. "I came to Chile voluntarily," said Fujimori, who had unexpectedly arrived here from exile in Japan late last year. "(Leaving) is totally out of the question."
The former two-term president paid 2,800 dollars bail for his release on condition that he remain in Chile pending extradition proceedings.
The Supreme Court order earlier Thursday upheld an order barring Fujimori from leaving Chile for now, said Judge Enrique Cury.
The judge who fixed the bail, Orlando Alvarez, predicted that a decision on extradition would take at least a month.
Fujimori, 67, was Peru's president from 1990 to 2000. He is charged there with corruption and human rights violations.
Alfredo Etcheverri, the prosecutor representing the Peruvian state in the proceedings, warned that his release made Fujimori a flight risk, noting that he had arrived in Santiago with no advance warning.
Meanwhile, a top Peruvian official also voiced concern that Fujimori would flee.
"As the anti-corruption prosecutor I am expressing my concern about the Chilean Supreme Court's decision because I consider the danger of flight is real," Antonio Maldonado told Peruvian cable news broadcaster Canal N.
The son of Japanese immigrants, Fujimori fled Peru in 2000 amid a corruption scandal and resigned by fax from Tokyo. He lived in exile in Japan for five years.
In November 2005 he abruptly left Japan and flew to Chile, where he was promptly arrested because of Peru's extradition request.
He is wanted in Peru on charges of embezzlement and corruption as well as alleged human rights violations that include responsibility for abductions, homicides and torture of leftist opponents. The former president insists he is innocent and a victim of political persecution.
Fujimori is credited with reining in economic chaos and leftist insurgencies during his presidency, but his detractors say he achieved that by riding roughshod over democracy, civil liberties and human rights.
His daughter tried to register him as a candidate in the Peruvian presidential election in April, but authorities pointed out he had been banned from seeking public office for 10 years after he fled the South American country.
News of his release in Chile Thursday came in the run-up to a second round of Peruvian presidential elections, on June 4, between nationalist Ollanta Humala and Social-Democrat Alan Garcia.
Humala told reporters that the news "evidently worries many Peruvians" but he did not want to make a political issue of it. Garcia said it was a judicial matter and "neither has an internal effect on our country nor significance or relevance."