Ben Gurion Airport
Ben Gurion AirportFlash 90

Alejandro Toledo, once the President of Peru and now wanted on bribery charges, has left the U.S. for Israel. He is suspected of having taken some $20 million in bribes from a Brazilian construction company, as well as having paid off a number of Latin American leaders.

Toledo, who denies the charges against him, served as President of Peru from 2001 to 2006. Married to a Jewish woman with Israeli citizenship, he has been living in San Francisco, California.

The U.S. informed Peru that it would not extradite Toledo, nor to prevent him from leaving the country. Toledo is now on his way to Israel, and is expected to land this evening.

Israel has no extradition agreement with Peru.

Peru announced a prize of $30,000 for information leading to his arrest.

As reported earlier, Toledo rose from poverty to lead the fight against a graft-stained government in the 1990s. Just last week, a Peruvian judge ordered an international arrest warrant for him, and the authorities informed the U.S. and other countries. Prosecutors wish to investigate charges that he took money to pave the way for the Brazilian company to build a highway between Brazil and Peru.

Toledo says he received the money as a loan from his Holocaust-survivor mother-in-law, but other sources negate this claim.