Peru’s judiciary declared on Monday that the trial against Keiko Fujimori has been opened, accused of allegedly committing the crimes of criminal organization, money laundering, false declaration in an administrative proceeding, ideological falsehood and obstruction of justice. Fujimori pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, and three-time presidential candidate for the Popular Force party, attended the hearing and is accused along with 45 other people under investigation.
Giulliana Loza, Fujimori’s lawyer, had asked the judge in charge to cancel the trial and to return the case to the previous stage. However, this request was rejected. Loza argues that, as Fujimori’s representative, the crimes her client is accused of cannot be proven, suggesting that she may have committed only an administrative infraction.
A CNN asked Loza for further comments on the case and is awaiting a response.
The investigation led by the Public Prosecutor’s Office began in 2017 in the context of the corruption scandal involving the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, after the discovery of notes in the diaries of Marcelo Odebrecht, the company’s former CEO, mentioning Fujimori’s name. The Prosecutor’s Office alleges that Alberto Fujimori’s daughter received money from this company for her presidential campaigns and that she hid these funds, registering them as contributions from other people.
In 2016, Odebrecht reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice in which it admitted to having made improper payments totaling approximately US$788 million to obtain public works contracts in several Latin American countries, including Peru. Specifically in that country, the company admitted to having paid bribes to government officials totaling US$29 million between 2005 and 2014.
The investigation was concluded in March 2021 and prosecutor José Domingo Perez requested 30 years in prison for the former candidate. It will be the judiciary that will determine Keiko Fujimori’s innocence or guilt. The prosecution also includes the Fuerza Popular party and calls for its dissolution in the event of conviction.
As part of the tax investigation, Fujimori was twice held in pre-trial detention.
The trial would last at least “a good few years,” Loza told the RPP website. Therefore, if Keiko Fujimori were to run for president again, she would do so during the judicial process.
However, on Sunday, Fujimori said she would “love” for her father to run in the 2026 presidential election, as reported by Canal N.
Alberto Fujimori announced on his X account on June 19 that he had joined his daughter’s party, Fuerza Popular. In a letter addressed to the newspaper El Comercio, which he also published on his social media, he said: “I want to go back to working for all Peruvians.”
Regarding whether her father could run again, Keiko Fujimori recently said that “there is a legal debate” surrounding the issue and that “it will be the electoral bodies that will finally define this possibility.”
Source: CNN Brasil
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