Prosecutor Asks for New Preventive Detention for Keiko Fujimori

On Thursday, Peru's anti-corruption prosecutor Jose Domingo Perez asked the judiciary to order new pre-trial detention of presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori to prevent her from interfering in an ongoing investigation.

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"It has been determined once again that the defendant Fujimori Higuchi does not comply with the restriction of not communicating with witnesses," Perez said in a petition to Judge Victor Zuniga.
   
Fujimori, who is under investigation concerning the case of Odebrecht, one of the most significant bribery and graft scandals in Latin America, "is communicating with Miguel Torres Morales," a witness to alleged illegal campaign financing for Fujimori's 2011 and 2016 presidential bids, according to Perez.
   
During a televised conference of Fujimori's Popular Force party on Wednesday, Perez noted that Torres appeared alongside Keiko as a lawyer and spokesperson for the political organization.
   
At the conference, Torres said the party would move to annul the results of 802 polling stations in Sunday's presidential runoff due to alleged irregularities in the electoral process.
   
So far, Fujimori's rival Pedro Castillo, of the left-leaning Free Peru party, is leading the vote count, though by a razor-thin margin.
   
Torres denied witnessing any illicit activities.
   
The daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori is accused of receiving 1.2 million U.S. dollars in campaign funding from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, which has admitted to systematically bribing officials and politicians throughout the region in exchange for lucrative government contracts.
   
Keiko Fujimori spent more than a year in preventive detention between October 2018 and May 2020 at the request of the prosecutor's office.
   
With 99.99 percent of the ballots tabulated, she trails Castillo with 49.79 percent of the votes against the latter's 50.20 percent.