MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Peru: Public Prosecutor requests preventive detention for Keiko Fujimori for failing to comply with probation

In 2020, a judge allowed Fujimori to be released from prison and placed on probation with some rules, such as the prohibition to communicate with witnesses.

The Peruvian public prosecutor's office has requested that conservative presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori be remanded in custody for failing to comply with “the obligations imposed by the Criminal Court of Appeals” by meeting with one of the witnesses in her alleged money laundering trial during a press conference, which she was prohibited from doing. The request is contained in a document circulating since Thursday with the signature of the prosecutor in charge of the Lava Jato case in Peru, José Domingo Pérez.

“It has been determined once again that the accused Fujimori Higuchi is not complying with the restriction of not communicating with witnesses, as it has been noted as a public and notorious fact that she communicates with the witness Miguel Torres Morales,” the prosecutor's text states. The accused presented Torres Morales as a lawyer and political spokesman for her party, Fuerza Popular, in an appearance before the press on Wednesday to report on the petitions to invalidate thousands of votes cast by her opponent in the second round of the presidential elections, the leftist rural teacher Pedro Castillo.

Fujimori was indicted by prosecutor Domingo Perez in March on charges of criminal organisation and obstruction of justice. The trial against the Fuerza Popular candidate, who has been under probation since then, is currently in the pre-trial phase, called “control de acusación”. If she wins the election against Castillo, she would be granted immunity while in office, but the trial would continue with some thirty co-defendants, including Fujimori's family members and allies.

The leftist candidate has a lead of 72,455 votes with 99.1% of the official count at the time of publication of this article, but the challenges presented by Fujimori prevent his proclamation as the winner of the elections.

Public prosecutor Domingo Pérez has requested 30 years in prison for Fujimori for allegedly receiving 1.2 million dollars from Brazilian transnational Odebrecht for his presidential election campaigns in 2011 and 2016.

#Último El fiscal José Domingo Pérez solicitó al Poder Judicial que revoque la comparecencia restringida y dicte prisión preventiva contra Keiko Fujimori por haberse reunido con Miguel Torres, testigo en la investigación fiscal por los aportes a las campañas de 2011 y 2016. pic.twitter.com/HidEb1RAQA

— IDL-Reporteros (@IDL_R) June 10, 2021

Fujimori was remanded in custody twice between 2018 and 2019 when the prosecution showed that witnesses in his case agreed on the versions they should give, or intimidated them to prevent them from testifying the truth and thus hinder the Peruvian Public Prosecutor's Office's investigations.

In 2020, the investigating judge Víctor Zúñiga accepted that the eldest daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori, now imprisoned for crimes against humanity, should be released from prison and placed on probation with some rules, such as the prohibition to communicate with co-defendants and witnesses, not to change her address without judicial authorisation, or to travel with prior judicial permission.