Keiko Fujimori, Peru’s former first lady, sent back to jail ahead of corruption trial
- Daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori denies accepting US$1.2 million from construction firm Odebrecht
- Peru’s constitution allows for suspects to be held without trial for up to 36 months in complex case
A judge in Peru has sent the country’s divisive opposition leader Keiko Fujimori back to jail, ordering she should serve three years as a preventive measure while prosecutors investigate claims she ran a “de facto criminal organisation” within her political party to launder campaign donations.
Judge Richard Concepcion Carhuancho ruled Fujimori, 43, who was put in police custody for a week this month, should return to jail to keep her from fleeing before a trial for allegedly running a money laundering racket within her party, Fuerza Popular.
Fujimori, the daughter of the former president Alberto Fujimori and a two-time loser in the last presidential elections, has denied taking US$1.2 million from Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction firm at the centre of Latin America’s biggest corruption scandal, during her 2011 election campaign.
Her lawyers say she is a victim of “political persecution” and have vowed to appeal.
Dressed in black with her hair in a ponytail, Fujimori hugged and kissed her husband while appearing to hold back tears.
It is a dramatic reversal of fortunes for Fujimori, who a few months ago was Peru’s most powerful politician with a congressional majority and an appetite to avenge her razor-thin 2016 electoral defeat to Pedro Pablo Kuczynski who resigned in March amid corruption allegations.