At a short hearing, Judge Thomas Hixson, of the Court of California, evaluated the request of the former president’s lawyers Alejandro Toledo, who seek to force the US prosecutor to deliver 16 pages of documentary information about the extradition process that Peru promotes. The magistrate, who asked the government to provide a few (but not all) of the requested files, scheduled a next session for April 9 at 10 a.m.
Toledo’s defense strategy is to question the documents that support the extradition, which is why at the end of December last year they required Judge Hixson to hand over the files. Their objective, they said in the letter sent to the Court, was to find evidence “related to the coercion of the two main witnesses”: former Odebrecht superintendent Jorge Barata and Israeli businessman Josef Maiman.
The ex-president participated yesterday in another hearing in which Judge Vince Chhabria evaluated his request for bail for alleged deterioration of his mental health in Maguire prison, San Mateo, where he has been since October 2019.
– Coerced teas? –
“The case of Peru against Dr. Toledo rests almost entirely on these two witnesses [Barata y Maiman], and Dr. Toledo believes in good faith that their statements have been coerced, ”says the document signed by lawyers Steven Kalar and Graham Archer. Therefore, two of the folios requested are copies of the interrogations made to Barata and Maiman by the special team of prosecutors of the Lava Jato case in Peru.
Federal prosecutor Elise LaPunzina has rejected the request and described it as a “fishing expedition” (expression that implies a blind search for information in Anglo-Saxon law). “The prosecution has previously delivered to Alejandro Toledo the copy of the extradition request from Peru along with its evidence […]. Toledo has no right to anything else, and his request to force [a la entrega de documentos] must be denied, ”argued the prosecutor in January of this year.
It should be noted that two weeks ago, Maiman gave an early statement before a Peruvian judge in the face of Toledo’s trial. There, he said he received US $ 34 million from Brazilian construction companies Odebrecht and Camargo Correa for the former president, of which he gave him US $ 21 million.
– Copies of the collaboration agreement-
Despite that statement, the defense of Alejandro Toledo He has also requested copies of the collaboration agreements of both, however, which are secret in Peru unless a national judge decides otherwise.
Toledo’s lawyers have also requested other documents linked only indirectly to the case, such as “material related to Toledo that has been obtained by the prosecution of the Eastern District of New York” in the general investigation into the Odebrecht / Braskem case and “ any information obtained by the investigation in the District of Maryland “, where the former president had a house with which he would have carried out money laundering operations.
Beyond what Judge Hixson decides on Thursday on the request for information, this is only the beginning of a long road, at the end of which Alejandro Toledo It will have to be leveled. The only recourse you can present to stop it is a habeas corpus claiming process issues. But if the ruling indicates that you must return to be tried in Peru, the decision of the Court will be final.
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