The hearing lasted more than eight hours. At the end of the day, Tuesday January 28, judge Victor Zuñiga announced the return to preventive prison of Keiko Fujimori, ex-leader of the Peruvian opposition, for 15 months while, gathered in court, his supporters chanted “Keiko is innocent”. Prosecuted in particular for money laundering, she is accused of having received bribes from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht – which gives its name to the gigantic corruption case of Latin American leaders – of more a million dollars to finance his 2011 election campaign.
The one who has already spent thirteen months in pretrial detention was released at the end of November 2019, but at the request of the prosecutor José Domingo Pérez, her case was re-examined. Mr. Pérez, prosecutor of the “special team” responsible for anti-corruption investigations, considered that there was a serious risk of obstruction of justice and a risk of escape for the accused as the charges mounted against her and that new evidence feeds into his case.
Keiko Fujimori, 44, former leader of the opposition party Fuerza Popular (conservative populist right) – she said in late November 2019 that she wanted to get away from politics to devote herself to her family and face her trial -, a claimed in a video posted on social networks to be the victim of a persecution. “This is not justice, this is an execution, a political revenge promoted by many interests (…) to try to make me disappear. “
His charges have multiplied: obstruction of justice, criminal organization, procedural fraud and false statements, among others. At the hearing, the judge clarified that the sentence could be up to 15 years in prison. Prosecutor Pérez spoke of 24 years and 10 months.
“She obstructed the search for the truth”
At the end of 2019, new testimonies from key figures in the case further incriminate him. In particular that of Jorge Yoshiyama, a close relative of the leadership of the Fuerza Popular party, who assured the Prosecutor’s Office that Ms. Fujimori knew of Odebrecht’s contributions and that she had specifically asked to hide them with false donors. Another statement was made by Peruvian entrepreneur Dionisio Romero, head of Peru’s largest bank, who admitted to the prosecutor that he had given $ 3.65 million in cash to finance his campaign.
José Domingo Pérez recently claimed that the evidence was overwhelming. “Keiko Fujimori broke all possible legality, not only because she took money from Odebrecht but also because it is objectively demonstrated that she received millions of dollars in cash, in suitcases, illegally. There is evidence that it obstructed the search for the truth by threatening, inciting, coercing witnesses “, said the prosecutor.
Since then, the Fujimorist camp denounces a fierce justice on their leader, playing the card of victimization. But Keiko Fujimori is far from the only political figure being pursued in corruption investigations. All ex-presidents of the past twenty years are also. Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006), Alan Garcia (1985-1990 and 2006-2011), who committed suicide before he was arrested, Ollanta Humala (2011-2016) and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-2018) were accused of having received money from the Brazilian group, which admitted having paid $ 29 million in bribes between 2005 and 2014.
Keiko Fujimori’s return to prison deals another blow to fujimorism (named after his father, Alberto Fujimori, a former autocratic president between 1990 and 2000, who is serving a 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity).
Shortly beaten by Kuzcynski in the second round of the 2016 presidential election, and while Fuerza Popular obtained a majority in Congress three years later, the legislative elections on Sunday January 26 severely punished the movement, which lost more than 60 of the 73 seats that he occupied in Congress. He now finds himself without a chief, while new general elections are looming for 2021.
Keiko Fujimori said goodbye to her husband, Mark Vito, in the courtroom on Tuesday evening, asking her to bring her case abroad, to governments and international bodies. She was then to be taken to the women’s prison in Chorrillos, south of Lima. Her lawyer announced that she will appeal. His trial is scheduled to start later this year.
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