[JURIST] Peruvian President Alan Garcia [official website] criticized the Supreme Court of Chile on Tuesday for delaying until after September 19 its ruling on whether to allow the extradition of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori [personal website, JURIST news archive]. Garcia said that he was confident the judges would come to the right decision, but expressed disappointment that the verdict has been repeatedly delayed. The Supreme Court of Chile announced in August that the decision would be postponed [JURIST report]. It was expected at that time that a verdict would be issued by September 5, but it was further delayed because of the ill-health of one of the judges [LIP report] and the absence from the country of Chilean President Michell Bachelet [BBC profile].

The Supreme Court's review comes after Peru filed an appeal of a lower court's ruling [JURIST reports] denying the government's request for extradition. Fujimori served as president of Peru from 1990 to 2000 and is currently under house arrest [JURIST report] in Chile. He was arrested in Chile [JURIST report] in December 2005 after flying into that country from Japan to campaign for the Peruvian presidency, despite having been officially banned from holding public office until 2010 [JURIST report]. He is currently running for a seat in the Japanese parliament [JURIST report]. Xinhua has more.