Peru: Keiko Fujimori Back to Jail

Judge Richard Concepción Carhuancho ruled on Wednesday 36 months of preventive detention for Peru's opposition leader Keiko Fujimori while investigations continue for alleged money laundering and illicit financing in the 2011 presidential campaign.

The magistrate justified the decision on the case based on the extensive information that the Prosecutor's Office has. "There is a serious suspicion of money laundering by Keiko Sofía Fujimori Higuchi," he said.

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According to the statement made by the judge on Wednesday, the First Preparatory Investigation Court of the National Criminal Chamber ruled in this regard from the entries that were found in 2017 on the agenda of the former executive president of the Odebrecht construction company, Marcelo Odebrecht, in which the phrase "increase 5,000 for Keiko and make visit" appears, which according to Odebrecht's own testimony, refers to $ 500,000 that served as financing for the campaign for the presidential candidate in 2011.

It is expected that Fujimori's defense will present an appeal towards the judicial decision, for which it will have three days. However, after this ruling, the leader of the People's Party of Peru would be transferred to a prison in Lima, although no further details were given.

Pre-trial detention is a measure of deprivation of liberty included in the Criminal Procedure Code of Peru and is applied when a person is suspected of having committed a crime. This measure is carried out prior to the judicial verification of the responsibility of the suspect in order to avoid interference in the investigation by leaks or manipulation or obstruction of the gathering of proof.