ZURICH, Switzerland (Reuters) - Switzerland on Tuesday handed back to Peru $77.5 million in "dirty money" seized from bank accounts held by Lima's former spy chief and a general accused of corruption, Zurich prosecutors said.

The total sum included $49.5 million in bribes which intelligence chief and presidential adviser Vladimiro Montesinos allegedly collected for brokering dozens of arms deals, prosecutors who headed the probe said in a statement.

The $49.5 million included $10.9 million in kickbacks Montesinos allegedly received for arranging the purchase of three MiG 29 fighter jets by Peru's air force from state-owned Russian arms factory Rosvooruzhenie, prosecutors said.

In Russia, Rosvooruzhenie made no comment. Montesinos's lawyer in Lima was not immediately available.

"The account at Banco de la Nacion del Peru at Citibank in New York today received a credit of $77.5 million from Switzerland. This consisted largely of the blocked assets of Vladimiro Montesinos Torres and the former Peruvian general Nicolas de Bari Hermoza Rios," they said.

The general, who was the armed forces chief under former President Alberto Fujimori, is also suspected of taking bribes for arms deals and stashing the money in Swiss accounts. He has agreed to have $21 million repatriated to Peru, prosecutors said.

An arms dealer involved in the case is voluntarily repatriating his $7 million commission held in a Swiss bank.

A further $33 million remains blocked while Peru seeks formal legal assistance in getting the money back.

Montesinos sparked a corruption crisis in 2000, which brought down Fujimori when he was seen in a secretly taped video bribing an opposition politician.

PERU RETRIEVES $146 MILLION

Montesinos, who is jailed at a top-security Lima naval base, is charged with a laundry-list of crimes including drug trafficking and responsibility for human rights abuses.

Since investigations began into Montesinos' web of corruption, which touched the highest levels of political, media and business influence in Peru, officials have retrieved $146 million -- including the Swiss money -- and are seeking $27 million more from the United States and other countries.

"(Peru) has proved to Swiss authorities that the money seized there came from corruption ... like arms deals from Russia and not from drug trafficking," Justice Minister Fausto Alvarado told reporters.

Judicial sources say the money would have been frozen in Switzerland if it was proved to be linked to drug-running.

The Swiss authorities probed five banks, but only took sanctions against the local branch of Israel's Bank Leumi, holding the general manager responsible for organizational errors after he approved opening an account for the spy chief.

Bank Leumi has said its relationship with Ruggell Trading Inc. -- the name in which the Montesinos account was opened -- had begun before Montesinos' political position was known.

Switzerland has been cracking down on dirty money in a bid to shake its image as a haven for white-collar criminals.

Swiss bank secrecy laws, which have helped nurture a multi-trillion dollar private banking industry, have come under pressure amid fears they help hide dirty cash, although the government has stressed repeatedly this is not the case.

The Montesinos funds came to light when banks informed government authorities about suspicious funds in October 2000.

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