(Recasts, adds new quotes, details) By Monica Vargas and Erik Lopez SANTIAGO, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori lost his battle against extradition from Chile on Friday and was due to be taken to Lima to face charges of human rights abuse and corruption. The man famed for crushing Maoist rebel group the Shining Path during his 1990-2000 rule was expected to be taken from his temporary residence on the outskirts of the Chilean capital Santiago to the city's airport on Friday evening. From there, Chilean police said he would be flown to the border with Peru where he would be handed to Peruvian authorities, hours after Chile's Supreme Court sealed his fate by ordering his extradition. The 69-year-old's hasty, forced departure from Chile came nearly two years after he arrived unexpectedly in Santiago from Japan aiming to make a political comeback in Peru. The son of Japanese immigrants, Fujimori had spent five years in exile in Japan following the collapse of his government in 2000. In his two years under arrest in Chile, he has fought a constant legal battle to avoid extradition to the country he once ruled. That battle ended on Friday when Chile's Supreme Court ruled in favor of Peruvian prosecutors. The decision, which cannot be appealed, was a surprise and contradicted an earlier ruling by one of the court's own judges. The court unanimously accepted evidence linking Fujimori to two notorious massacres -- known as Barrios Altos and La Cantuta -- in the early 1990s, when Peru was at war with the Shining Path. Students, a professor and a child were among the 25 killed in the massacres, which Peruvian state prosecutors blame on death squads run by Fujimori's government. "(The vote) was much easier than we thought and the important thing above all was Barrios Altos and La Cantuta," said Alberto Chaigneau, one of five judges who heard the case. CONFIDENT ABOUT TRIAL In an interview with CNN shortly after the ruling, Fujimori said he would clear his name in Lima and insisted his tough actions had been necessary to rid Peru of Latin America's bloodiest insurgents. "In Peru in the early 1990s there was terrible terrorism. There were car bombs, murders all over the place, entire villages dominated by the Shining Path," he said. Talking to Reuters just hours before he was due to be extradited, he said he was ready to face "all these charges, all these accusations, without exception". In Lima, the government urged the Peruvian people not to make the Chilean court ruling "an issue of division." Fujimori spokesman Carlos Raffo asked the government to take measures to ensure the former president's safety once he arrives in Lima, suggesting how divisive Fujimori remains even seven years after his fall from power. For some Peruvians, he is the man who had the guts not only to stand up to the Shining Path but to send troops into the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima in 1997 to end a four-month hostage crisis. Others view him as a corrupt despot who milked state funds for himself and cronies during his tenure. Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director of U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, hailed Friday's verdict as a landmark. "After years of evading justice, Fujimori will finally have to respond to the charges and evidence against him in the country he used to run like a mafia boss," he said. Fujimori left office months into his third term when his government collapsed under a huge corruption scandal. He faxed his resignation from Japan. (Additional reporting by Pav Jordan and Antonio de la Jara in Santiago and Maria Luisa Palomino and Terry Wade in Lima)
