The judge of Peru Víctor Zúñiga has rejected this Monday the request of the Prosecutor’s Office for preventive detention against the presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori for the corruption case ‘Lava Jato’ and the alleged contributions of the construction company Odebrecht to his presidential campaign, and has imposed restrictions to meet with witnesses in the case and collaborators.
“Judge Víctor Zúñiga Urday declares unfounded prosecutor’s request for variation of restrictive appearance measure for preventive detention against Keiko Fujimori, accused of money laundering and others,” the Judicial Power has indicated through his Twitter account.
The prosecutor of the special team ‘Lava Jato’, José Domingo Pérez, requested on June 11 the preventive detention of Fujimori, considering that he had violated the terms of his probation.
Pérez explained that Fujimori has violated one of the restrictions imposed on him in exchange for being released from prison at the beginning of May 2020, that of not communicating with other witnesses in the case for which he is accused of having received illegal financing through the construction company Odebrecht for its presidential campaigns in 2011 and 2016.
In the hearing that was held this Monday, the prosecutor Pérez and Keiko Fujimori herself participated together with her lawyer, Giulliana Loza.
Despite rejecting the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, the judge has recognized that there have been cases of rapprochement between Fujimori and witnesses in the case, for which he has emphasized strict compliance with the measures that were imposed on Fujimori for his release.
“If he does not do so, preventive detention will be issued against him again, upon request of the Prosecutor’s Office,” Zúñiga pointed out.
Before the resolution, Pérez has indicated that he will appeal while Fujimori’s lawyer has expressed her agreement with the exception of the requirement of restrictions.
For his part, Fujimori has shared a video through social networks in which he has denounced “the political and electoral intentions” of the prosecutor Pérez since this was carried out “when the review of the electoral records was requested” instead of ” throughout the electoral campaign ».
The prosecutor denounced the public meeting between Fujimori and the “witness in the Miguel Torres Morales case,” in which the conservative leader announced legal actions before the National Elections Jury (JNE) for the recount of the second round of the elections, and in which he would act as a lawyer for Fuerza Popular. Torres has defended that he is not a witness in the case.
“I have no doubt that what the prosecutor has done is cut my right to defend the vote of more than 50 percent of Peruvians who want to know the truth,” said Fujimori.
Likewise, it has rejected the restrictions imposed since it considers that “there are no differences between witnesses and they want me to stay alone.”
The leader of Fuerza Popular left the Lima jail in May last year after the Justice revoked the preventive prison sentence that she had been serving since the beginning of 2020 for allegedly receiving bribes from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.
The Justice decided to approve the appeal presented by Fujimori’s defense and revoke the preventive detention, alleging that “the suspicion of guilt based” was not enough by itself to issue this penalty.
The Odebrecht case is the main derivative of the ‘Lava Jato’ case, which broke out in Brazil. In both, a network of trafficking in political favors in exchange for donations from companies is investigated.
