Peru forming team to bring back Fujimori

LIMA, Peru (CNN) -- Saying the return of former President Alberto Fujimori is a top priority for the country, the Peruvian government announced it will set up a team to help bring back the disgraced leader, who is in self-imposed exile in Japan.

A government spokesman made the announcement Thursday following President Alejandro Toledo's first Cabinet meeting. Toledo took office last weekend after winning elections in June.

Foreign Minister Diego Garcia Sayan said the team will work out the best strategy to bring Fujimori back to Peru, possibly charging the former president with human rights crimes, a violation under international law. Using international law could be a way to overcome the fact that Japan and Peru do not have an extradition treaty.

On Thursday, a top Peruvian judge issued an international arrest warrant for Fujimori, but Japan is not expected to honor the warrant.

A Japanese Foreign Ministry official told The Associated Press on Friday that Japan had not received a formal request for action from Peru. The official, speaking on conditon of anonymity, told the AP the case would be handled "in accordance with Japanese law."

Supreme Court Judge Jose Luis Lecaros declared Fujimori an absent criminal for failing to appear before him to answer charges that he abandoned the duties of his office.

The Peruvian foreign minister said Friday the government will send a diplomatic note to Japan later in the day, voicing concern over Fujimori's claim to Japanese citizenship.

Because Fujimori's parents are from Japan, he has been granted citizenship there. Japan does not extradite nationals.

Toledo lost to Fujimori in elections last year that were marred by irregularities and rejected as invalid by the United States and other international observers. Fujimori served only about six months of his unprecedented and previously unconstitutional third five-year term. He fled to Japan in November in the wake of a corruption scandal involving his former security chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, who is now in jail.

Fujimori tried to resign the presidency by sending a note from Japan, but Congress did not accept it, and instead declared him morally unfit to govern.