A Peruvian ex-army officer known as the "Butcher of the Andes" who stands accused of killing 69 peasants in the 1980s, has been extradited to Peru from the United States to face charges, police said.

Telmo Hurtado is accused of commanding a military patrol in the southeast of the country that killed civilians, including 30 children and 27 women, in 1985 during Peru's war against Shining Path Maoist guerrillas and is due to appear before a national criminal court on Friday.

The court will then decide where he will be held while the case against him is further investigated said Karim Ninaquispe, a lawyer for families of the victims.

Hurtado is alleged to have taken part in the infamous "Accomarca Massacre" on August 14, 1985, when army units entered the Quebrada de Huancayoc village, herded villagers into houses and set them alight, killing dozens.

Hurtado was included in a blanket amnesty granted to military officers in the 1990s but lost his immunity after the Supreme Court decided to nullify the law in 2002.

At the time he had already moved to the Miami, Florida and was subsequently arrested by US authorities in 2007.

The following year was he ordered to pay $37 million after a case brought by the Centre for Justice and Accountability, a rights group representing two witnesses to the massacre.

Around 70,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed during Peru's war on leftist Shining Path and Tupac Amaru rebel groups in the 1980s and 1990s.

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