Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

World

Prosecutor urges preventative detention for Peru’s Keiko Fujimori

-

A Peruvian prosecutor called Friday for powerful opposition leader Keiko Fujimori to be placed under preventive detention for three years as part of a corruption scandal involving Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht.

Prosecutor Jose Domingo Perez lodged the request only two days after an appeals court ordered Fujimori's release from a week-long stay in prison as part of the same investigation.

Her lawyer Giuliana Loza described the prosecutor's request as "an outrage and abuse," El Comercio's newspaper's online edition reported.

The 43-year-old daughter and political heir to disgraced ex-president Alberto Fujimori, Keiko has increasingly come under the spotlight as prosecutors investigate millions of dollars in illicit campaign contributions to several former presidents.

They say former presidents Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Alan Garcia and Alejandro Toledo all took undeclared campaign contributions in exchange for pledges to have the Brazilian construction giant win local tenders.

Their key witness, former Odebrecht Peru chief Jorge Barata, said he doled out millions of dollars to Peruvian presidential candidates between 2001 and 2016.

Perez believes Fujimori -- leader of the main opposition Popular Force party -- received more than $1.2 million from Odebrecht for her 2011 presidential campaign.

She was arrested on Perez's request on October 10 after she was summoned to give evidence to a court hearing in Lima.

An appeals court ordered her release on Wednesday but specified in its ruling that it was making no judgment of the merits of the case against her.

She denies all wrongdoing.

Three of her aides are also being held in preventive detention.

Fujimori said after her release she had used the time in prison to "begin a journey to achieve the unity of my family again" -- a reference to a feud with her younger brother Kenji which has weakened her politically.

Her brother leads a rival faction of Popular Force.

Up to her shock arrest on Wednesday, Keiko Fujimori had not been directly under investigation, as most of the prosecutors' attention was on two of her senior 2011 campaign aides.

The two aides, Jaime Yoshiyama and Augusto Bedoya, were among more than a dozen others placed under arrest as part of the investigation.

A Peruvian prosecutor called Friday for powerful opposition leader Keiko Fujimori to be placed under preventive detention for three years as part of a corruption scandal involving Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht.

Prosecutor Jose Domingo Perez lodged the request only two days after an appeals court ordered Fujimori’s release from a week-long stay in prison as part of the same investigation.

Her lawyer Giuliana Loza described the prosecutor’s request as “an outrage and abuse,” El Comercio’s newspaper’s online edition reported.

The 43-year-old daughter and political heir to disgraced ex-president Alberto Fujimori, Keiko has increasingly come under the spotlight as prosecutors investigate millions of dollars in illicit campaign contributions to several former presidents.

They say former presidents Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Alan Garcia and Alejandro Toledo all took undeclared campaign contributions in exchange for pledges to have the Brazilian construction giant win local tenders.

Their key witness, former Odebrecht Peru chief Jorge Barata, said he doled out millions of dollars to Peruvian presidential candidates between 2001 and 2016.

Perez believes Fujimori — leader of the main opposition Popular Force party — received more than $1.2 million from Odebrecht for her 2011 presidential campaign.

She was arrested on Perez’s request on October 10 after she was summoned to give evidence to a court hearing in Lima.

An appeals court ordered her release on Wednesday but specified in its ruling that it was making no judgment of the merits of the case against her.

She denies all wrongdoing.

Three of her aides are also being held in preventive detention.

Fujimori said after her release she had used the time in prison to “begin a journey to achieve the unity of my family again” — a reference to a feud with her younger brother Kenji which has weakened her politically.

Her brother leads a rival faction of Popular Force.

Up to her shock arrest on Wednesday, Keiko Fujimori had not been directly under investigation, as most of the prosecutors’ attention was on two of her senior 2011 campaign aides.

The two aides, Jaime Yoshiyama and Augusto Bedoya, were among more than a dozen others placed under arrest as part of the investigation.

AFP
Written By

With 2,400 staff representing 100 different nationalities, AFP covers the world as a leading global news agency. AFP provides fast, comprehensive and verified coverage of the issues affecting our daily lives.

You may also like:

World

Calling for urgent action is the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Business

The cathedral is on track to reopen on December 8 - Copyright AFP Ludovic MARINParis’s Notre-Dame Cathedral, ravaged by fire in 2019, is on...

Business

Saudi Aramco President & CEO Amin Nasser speaks during the CERAWeek oil summit in Houston, Texas - Copyright AFP Mark FelixPointing to the still...

Business

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal infers that some workers might be falling out of the job market altogether.