Apr 6, 2006, 12:29 GMT
Tokyo - Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori wed his Japanese girlfriend Thursday as he sits in a Chilean jail while Peru seeks his extradition on charges of corruption and human-rights abuses.
Undated photograph of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori taken in Santiago de Chile. EPA/Ian Salas
The marriage was legalized when agents of the 67-year-old politician of Japanese ancestry registered his marriage to hotel owner Satomi Kataoka in Tokyo, Japanese media reported.
'Today is the happiest day of my life,' Fujimori said in a statement that was released by his representatives.
Fujimori led Peru from 1990 to 2000 and was known for quashing a violent uprising by the Maoist Shining Path guerilla group and restoring economic stability to the Andean land but was also criticized for his authoritarian rule.
He fled Peru in 2000 as charges mounted against his administration that began with accusations of election irregularities and bribery and expanded to include the formation of death squads and other crimes against humanity. He now faces 21 criminal charges in Peru.
He lived in exile in Japan for five years before announcing he intended to run for president again in Peru in voting scheduled for Sunday, but on his return to his homeland in November, he was arrested in Chile.
He and Kataoka met each other in 2001 through a friend and had lived together until the former president attempted to return to Peru.
Kataoka said last month when she travelled to Peru to back pro-Fujimori candidates that the couple had agreed to marry a few years ago but had yet to do so 'because we had our own situations to consider.' She added, however, that they intended to wed before Sunday's election.
'I was deeply impressed when I visited Peru and looked at his supporters,' Kataoka said, according to the Kyodo news agency. 'I'm determined to stake my life on protecting him.'
Fujimori has four children with his former wife, also a Japanese-Peruvian, whom he divorced in 1995.
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