A US judge authorized the extradition to Peru of former President Alejandro Toledo  on Tuesday. 

Toledo has been accused of accepting bribes from a Brazilian construction company in exchange of handing them over with the tender to build a highway that links Peru and Brazil.

Toledo allegedly accepted $20 million (€17 million) in payment from the Odebrecht group.

Peru had asked the US to extradite their president in 2018, following which Toledo was arrested by US authorities in 2019.

Toledo had been living in California, near the Stanford University campus, where he both studied and worked, at the time of his arrest.

He had been under house arrest, though he spent a few months in jail in the earlier stages of his extradition case.

The final approval for extradition now rests with the US Department of State.

Toledo was the president of Peru from 2001 until 2006.

What did the judge say?

US Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson heard the testimonies of Jorge Barata, the former head of Odebrecht in Peru, and that of Josef Maiman, an acquaintance of Toledo who has said he helped the former president receive the bribe money.

"Barata and Maiman's testimony, combined with Toledo's admissions in this extradition proceeding that he ultimately received approximately $500,000 (roughly €430,000) in Odebrecht bribe money... establish probable cause to believe that Toledo committed collusion and money laundering," the judge said.

The judge added that the case against Toledo was not "airtight" since witnesses had contradicted themselves at times and that issues pertaining to their testimonies had to be resolved in a Peruvian trial. 

But the "evidence of criminality" was sufficient to "sustain the charge of collusion and money laundering" against Toledo, Hixson said in his ruling.

Toledo has denied all accusations against him. He is one of five former Peruvian presidents whom authorities allege have engaged in corrupt practices in recent decades.

The Odebrecht group itself is mired in a multi-national corruption scandal, most notably in Brazil.

How have Peruvian officials reacted?

Peru's Justice Minister Anibal Torres, in one of the first official reactions to the news, said he "welcomed Judge Hixson's ruling that supports the Peruvian state's position on the extradition of Toledo so that he can be tried in our country."

The Odebrecht group is accused of paying millions of dollars in bribes throughout the continent to secure prominent public works contracts. The company has admitted to paying $29 million in bribes in Peru between 2005 and 2014.

rm/msh (Reuters, AP)