Keiko Fujimori is no longer in remand

Keiko Fujimori, the right-wing populist candidate in the second round of Peru’s presidential election, will not return to remand as part of a corruption investigation, the Peruvian Court of Justice ruled on Monday, June 21, while the country is still waiting to know the outcome of the June 6 vote. .

He declared that the prosecution’s request was baseless (…) to revoke parole.” De Keiko Fujimori and others ‘put back in custody’Judge Victor Zuniga.

The latter ruled at the end of a two-hour session in the presence of Mr.^I Fujimori, his lawyer and Prosecutor José Domingo Pérez who requested that he be placed in pretrial detention.

On June 10, Peres had called for the candidate to be granted conditional release Cancellation. He accused him of interviewing a witness in a case of money laundering and illicit financing of his previous presidential campaigns.

He already spent sixteen months in pretrial detention

The Fuerza Popular party leader has already spent sixteen months in pre-trial detention in this case relating to alleged bribes she received from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht during the 2011 and 2016 campaigns, accusations she rejects.

Keiko Fujimori “Systically violates the code of conduct of not contacting witnesses”Mr. Perez, who qualified as a candidate, pleaded at the hearing “provocative”.

Initially planned by default due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the hearing finally took place in person after a request from the defense, which was accepted by the judge. Prosecutor General Perez opposed this request, believing that the candidate’s defense wanted to politicize the hearing in the midst of an electoral context. Dozens of supporters m^I Fujimori had gathered outside the courtroom.

The attorney general’s request came just four days after the second round of Peru’s presidential election, the final results of which are still unknown, more than two weeks after the vote. With 100% of the votes counted, the radical leftist candidate Pedro Castillo, a 51-year-old teacher and trade unionist, led the second round with 50.12% of the vote, leading by about 44,000 votes.

Appeals examination

But the National Elections Arbitration Commission (JNE), which will announce the results, is still considering appeals by candidates. The daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), who is himself serving a 25-year prison sentence for corruption and crime against humanity, has escalated charges “cheating” against his opponent. It called for the invalidation of several tens of thousands of votes. At the end of the vote, the Organization of American States (OAS) Election Observation Mission identified the vote as ” positive “, without ‘serious violations’.

Keiko Fujimori, 46, was able to stand for election despite the pending investigation. She was released from prison in May 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but has been banned from traveling outside Peru or communicating with other defendants or witnesses in this case.

Twenty-eight months into the investigation, Prosecutor General Perez in this case indicted 41 other people for alleged crimes. Organized crime, money laundering, obstruction of justice and false advertising. The Public Prosecutor’s Office notably obtained at the end of 2019 the confession of Luiz Eduardo da Rocha Soares, former CEO of Odebrecht, to a bribe of $1 million to pay for the popular Fuerza campaign in 2011.

If she fails for the third time in the second round of the presidential election, Keiko Fujimori will be tried in the context of the case for which the prosecution requested a thirty-year prison sentence against her at the end of March. In the event of victory, a Fujimori heir, this combination of authoritarian populism, communal conservatism, and economic liberalism, would benefit from presidential immunity for at least five years.