Peru's ex-President Kuczynski barred from leaving country

LIMA, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Peruvian judicial authorities imposed travel restrictions on ex-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, banning him from

leaving Peru for 18 months, Judge Juan Carlos Sanchez said on Saturday.

The order was due to an ongoing investigation into allegations that the former president accepted bribes from the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, said Sanchez, who heads probes into public-sector corruption.

Two places of residence owned by Kuczynski, located in Lima and the countryside area of Cieneguilla, were also searched by investigators on Saturday.

Kuczynski, 79, stepped down on Wednesday before Peru's Congress was scheduled to hold a second round of voting to impeach him for being "morally unfit" for the job.

Kuczynski reacted to the search operations via Twitter, saying "Let's leave the media show behind and not continue to damage the country's image."

He added that he had "nothing to fear" and pledged to cooperate fully with the authorities.

The allegations of corruption go back to the early 2000s, when as minister Kuczynski's U.S.-based consulting firm, Westfield Capita, accepted 4.7 million U.S. dollars from Odebrecht, which then secured lucrative public works contracts.

The former representative of Odebrecht in Lima, Jorge Barata, has admitted that he had donated 200,000 dollars to Kuczynski's 2016 presidential campaign.

Peru has also requested the extradition from the United States of then president Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006), who is also charged with accepting millions from Odebrecht. Enditem