Fugitive ex-Peruvian president not on flight to Israel

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said that Peru’s fugitive ex-president Alejandro Toledo was not aboard a Sunday evening flight from San Francisco that landed at the country’s main international airport.

Israel said earlier Sunday it would not allow entry to Toledo, who is wanted in his homeland over accusations he took $20 million in bribes.

“Toledo will be allowed in Israel only when his affairs in Peru are settled,” foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said in a statement earlier in the day. But the former president was not on the flight, as had been reported.

The Peruvian government had said it had information that Toledo, whose wife, Eliane Karp, has Israeli citizenship, could have tried to flee to the Jewish state.

Peruvian police launched a manhunt for Toledo, 70, once hailed as an anti-corruption champion, after a judge ordered his arrest.

He was initially believed to be in Paris. But the Peruvian government said Friday it had information he was in San Francisco and there was concern he would try to flee to Israel.

Toledo is a visiting professor at Stanford University, near San Francisco, where he graduated with a PhD in economics.

He denies the accusations against him, branding them political persecution. But he has struggled to explain where the money came from.

He originally said it was a loan from his mother-in-law that came from compensation she received as a Holocaust survivor.

But his former vice president, David Waisman, himself a prominent member of Peru’s Jewish community, said the account was untrue.