Former Peru foreign minister is involved as an investor of a recycling plant in Albania.
TIRANA, Jan. 14 – The local media reports that a former Peruvian foreign minister, Augusto Blacker Miller, had been arrested by Albanian immigration officials, under an international arrest warrant. The Albanian media and Peruvian media outlets reported he was later released.
Police have denied the reports, and there has been little official explanation by Albanian authorities.
Unconfirmed reports said Blacker was briefly detained due to an issue getting his work visa reissued, but was not arrested.
Blacker Miller heads a company that is a large investor in Albania, trying to build a trash recycling factory in the southwestern district of Fier.
The move seems to have placed diplomatic ties between the two countries at a difficult state.
Peruvian media reported that Lima’s Interior Minister Wilfredo Pedraza said Albania should expel the fugitive former foreign minister, under the universal principle of reciprocity. The two countries have no extradition agreement.
Blacker Miller’s situation has been confusing for the media and many details remain murky. The Peruvian police received a report that he was captured in Tirana, and then released, but the Albanian authorities deny his arrest.
The international arrest warrant was issued because Peruvian courts tried him for rebellion in the coup of April 1992, when then-President Alberto Fujimori closed congress and took all the powers.
Peruvian authorities continue to insist that he should be arrested and extradited to Lima. They have been in contact with Interpol to make that possible.
According to Pedraza, the former minister was released conditionally, pending clarification of his situation.
Cesar Nakazaki, a lawyer for Fujimori, who is serving 25 years for crimes against humanity and corruption, said that Albania will not consider Blacker Miller’s extradition because a man who has been a minister of a cabinet is excluded from extradition, according to Peruvian media reports.
