Keiko Fujimori, leader of the Fuerza Popular party, which holds the majority in Congress, was released Wednesday evening after serving seven days of a 10-day preliminary detention.
Justices César Salhuanay, Iván Quispe and María León in the appeals court ruled unanimously that the defendant posed no flight risk nor of obstruction of justice. Fujimori served her detention at the Prefecture, the police administrative headquarters.
The detention had been ordered by Justice Richard Concepción, who last year ordered the 18-month preventive imprisonment of former President Ollanta Humala and his wife Nadine Heredia — the Humalas were released after nine months when the Constitutional Court ruled the imprisonment as abusive. Despite the Humala investigation now nearing its fourth year, no charges have yet been filed against them.
Fujimori is under investigation by the money laundering unit at the district attorney’s office, led by Rafael Vela and Domingo Perez who are in charge of the investigations into bribes and campaign funding by the Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht. Money laundering and organized crime charges are being considered in what is known as the “cocktails case”, a series of cocktail parties and raffles that ostensibly raised millions of dollars in campaign funds. However, none of the key figures in Fuerza Popular have been able to come up with a list of donors that match the sums ostensibly donated, nor names of ticket buyers or winners, while several witnesses have stated that they were asked to sign as donors but did not hand over any money.
When Keiko was arrested, warrants were issued for another 19 people, including advisor Vicente Silva Checa, who was filmed on video in the 1990s receiving $1 million from spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos during the Alberto Fujimori administration. The money was to ensure the editorial line of CCN TV, and he served three years in prison for that charge.
Also arrested, and most probably to be released this week, were Keiko’s closest advisors and political managers, Ana Herz and Pier Figari. Herz has been a close advisor since Keiko took the role of first lady in the second term of her father’s administration.
The investigation and the hearings will continue. Keiko’s defense attorney, Giuliana Lazo, is filing a request to have Justice Concepción removed from the case on the grounds that he is politically motivated.
