By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Foreign Service

LIMA, Peru, March 9 -- The Peruvian government is preparing an indictment against former president Alberto Fujimori on charges of abandoning his post as a
public servant and will seek his extradition from Japan if he fails to respond, according to Peruvian officials close to the case.

The charges are among the first in what is expected to be a wave of criminal counts against Fujimori. Those could include treason, extortion and even homicide, for
allegedly ordering the killing of rebels by government commandos during a high-profile assault to rescue hostages at the Japanese ambassador's residence in April
1997, officials say.

Fujimori, the son of Japanese immigrants who rose to become South America's most controversial leader of the 1990s, fled to Japan in November as his hold on
power was unraveling amid accusations of corruption during his 10 years as president.

Since his departure, investigations have focused largely on his former intelligence chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, who is charged with bribery, election rigging and
amassing more than $1 billion through arms deals, kickbacks on drug trafficking and extortion. Montesinos is a fugitive from justice and Peru's most wanted man.

But Peruvian authorities are now turning their attention to Fujimori. Last week, Congress voted to remove his immunity, which he still enjoys in principle through
executive privilege, on the twin charges of abandoning his post and failing to fulfill his duties as a public servant. Those charges, which congressional authorities say
were lodged first because they were the easiest to substantiate on short notice, carry a maximum prison sentence of two years each.

Peruvian government sources say they have ordered translation of these charges into Japanese so they can be submitted to authorities in Tokyo within the next three
weeks. The Japanese will be asked to serve Fujimori with the indictments.

Fujimori has maintained that he will not return to face charges. But if he refuses to surrender here, an order for his arrest will be issued, followed by an extradition
request that is being drafted and will be submitted to Japan via Peru's embassy in Tokyo, Justice Minister Diego Garcia Sayan said.

"We will not let Fujimori run away from his crimes," Garcia said in an interview.

More serious charges are on the way. Peruvian investigators said they have discovered a cache of 120 presidential decrees covering nearly $1 billion in government
purchases and signed by Fujimori between 1992 and 2000. They provide the most damaging evidence yet that Fujimori may have been aware of, and perhaps
shared in, Montesinos's deals.

In at least six of the secret decrees, Fujimori authorized payment from government coffers of more than $100 million each. Three of the decrees were related to the
purchase of MiG and Sukhoi military aircraft from Belarus, a deal from which Montesinos may have received millions in kickbacks disguised by inflated prices,
reports here say. Authorities now say they could use the documents to bring corruption charges against Fujimori as well.

The documents, which are being studied as part of 10 government investigations into Fujimori, may also provide the impetus for other charges. Among them,
according to official sources, is a possible charge of treason for allegedly signing an order to purchase poor quality weapons during Peru's brief 1995 war with
Ecuador at grossly inflated prices -- giving soldiers old guns and skimming money off the top.

But like everything surrounding Fujimori, the bid to bring him back is likely to turn into a drama. And even Peruvian officials concede it will be difficult.

Japan has no extradition treaty with Peru, and officials in Tokyo have strongly hinted that they will offer little cooperation. Fujimori has been recognized as a citizen of
Japan by birthright, because his parents were born there, entitling him to the same protection from extradition as any Japanese citizen.

"The government's objective is for Mr. Fujimori to return to Peru," said Javier Perez de Cuellar, the former U.N. secretary general whom Fujimori resoundingly
defeated during his reelection campaign in 1995. Perez de Cuellar is now acting foreign minister for the caretaker government.

But Japan has tough extradition laws that give the government wide discretion in deciding what constitutes an extraditable crime, legal experts said.

"If we receive a request [from Peru], we would study it," Japanese Justice Minister Masahiko Komura said at a news conference in Tokyo last week. "But generally
speaking, we will not extradite someone who has Japanese nationality or someone who has not committed an act that constitutes a crime in Japan."

Fujimori, 62, arrived in Tokyo on Nov. 17 on a surprise stopover after an Asia-Pacific economic summit meeting in Brunei. After several days, he announced that he
would seek asylum there rather than return to Peru. Although he e-mailed a resignation to Congress, he was instead removed from office for being "morally
incapable" of running the country.

This week, Fujimori released a statement saying he has moved into a new luxury residence in Chiyoda ward in central Tokyo. Fujimori made no mention of the
pending charges against him, but in previous comments to the media he has denied any illicit dealings with Montesinos.

Special correspondent Lucien Chauvin in Lima and researcher Robert Thomason in Washington contributed to this report.

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