CHILE COURT EXTRADITES FUJIMORI !

Chile's Supreme Court has approved the extradition of Peru's former President Alberto Fujimori. He is to be sent back to Peru, where he faces charges of human rights abuse and corruption - which he denies. Mr Fujimori, 69, has been fighting extradition ever since he flew from Japan to Chile in 2005, and is currently under house arrest. He travelled there in a failed attempt to return to Peru to run in last year's presidential elections.

"We have awarded the extradition," Supreme Court judge Alberto Chaigneau told reporters on Friday. He added that the court's decision had been based on two charges of human rights violations and five of corruption. The ruling is final and no further appeals are allowed. It reverses an earlier decision by a judge, who said Peru had not presented enough evidence to support the charges. The court did not specify when Mr Fujimori would be deported.

Relatives of students killed in Lima in 1992 hailed the extraditionCorrespondents say he is unlikely to be sent to Peru immediately. A special prison facility must be prepared where he will stay pending trial, AP news agency reports. The human rights charges against the former Peruvian leader date back to the early 1990s, when his government was allegedly responsible for killing civilians in the fight against Shining Path Maoist guerrillas.

One of the alleged massacres was at a poor neighbourhood in Lima in 1991 in which 15 people died. The second at a dormitory at La Cantuna University in 1992 in which one teacher and nine students were abducted and killed. Mr Fujimori - the son of Japanese immigrants - led Peru from 1990 to 2000, and fled the country as his term in office drew to a close amid a corruption scandal.

He initially flew to Japan, where he holds dual nationality and is immune from extradition. He says the charges against him are politically motivated.

BBC NEWS REPORT.