The Peruvian government believes that disgraced former president Alberto Fujimori will be extradited from Japan, Foreign Minister Manuel Rodriguez said Friday.

The minister also hoped the petition to invalidate 11 of the 22charges against Fujimori would be rejected by Peru's Supreme Courtto strengthen the extradition.

Fujimori, who was president from 1990 to 2000, began a legal challenge on Thursday to annul murder and corruption charges against him to allow him to return from exile in Japan to run in the 2006 elections.

"We have begun to present our case to annul 11 of the 22 charges against Fujimori," according to Fujimori's lawyer Cesar Nakazaki.

Peru's justice system has denied Fujimori a proper defense teamand, under Peruvian law, that would be enough to annul the cases and allow Fujimori to run for president, Nakazaki said.

In response, Peruvian state prosecutor Eduardo Gutierrez said, "Fujimori's right to defense has been respected and I don't believe the extradition requests are in danger."

He also insisted: "Alberto Fujimori has to face justice, rather than running away and hiding in another country."

The Peruvian justice has filed two extradition petitions against Fujimori, one for human rights violations and another for embezzlement, since he fled to Japan with double citizenship in November 2000 after 10 years in power.

Tokyo, however, has refused to extradite the former Peruvian president, saying Japanese law prohibits citizens from being tried in a third country.

Source: Xinhua