Israel Bars Peru’s Fugitive ex-Leader Alejandro Toledo

Israel says Peru’s fugitive former President Alejandro Toledo, wanted on corruption charges, will not be allowed to enter the country.

His arrest was requested in Peru last week over allegations he took $20m (£16m) in bribes. He denies wrongdoing.

The ex-leader was believed to be in San Francisco and possibly on a flight set to land in Israel. However, it was unclear whether he had boarded.

Officials in Peru have offered a reward for information leading to his capture.

Mr Toledo, who governed from 2001 to 2006, is accused of receiving money from Brazilian building firm Odebrecht in return for a contract to build stretches of a highway linking Peru and Brazil.

He is a visiting professor at Stanford University, near San Francisco, and his wife, Eliane Karp, has Israeli citizenship.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Mr Toledo would not be allowed entry in the country before “his affairs in Peru are settled.”

Odebrecht is at the centre of a multi-national corruption scandal. It admitted, as part of a plea deal with the US justice department, to paying nearly $800m (£640m) in bribes to governments across Latin America.

The company said it paid $29m in Peru to secure contracts between 2005 and 2014.

That time spans the presidencies of Mr Toledo and his two successors in office, Alan Garcia and Ollanta Humala, who have also denied any wrongdoing.