A Peruvian judge on Thursday ordered the arrest of former President Alejandro Toledo on suspicion of taking bribes from a Brazilian construction company at the heart of a region-wide corruption scandal. 

Judge Richard Concepcion accepted prosecutors' request Toledo be jailed for up to 18 months as they investigate allegations he received $20 million in bribes from Odebrecht in exchange for permission to build a highway connecting Brazil with the Peruvian coast. 

Toledo, who was president from 2001-2006, has denied any wrongdoing. He is believed to be abroad. He was in Paris for a meeting earlier in the week and is a visiting scholar at Stanford University in California. 

The judge said a red alert had been sent to the international police agency Interpol for his arrest "wherever he is." 

Police searched Toledo's home in Lima on Saturday. The 70-year-old former president has said would return to Peru as long as he could be assured of a fair trial. 

Toledo's lawyer, Heriberto Benitez, said he would appeal the decision and denounce the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Daily Sun