Keiko Fujimori will be returning to prison today to serve a 15-month pre-trial custody sentence, following a ruling yesterday in the court of organized crime and corruption. Fujimori was held overnight at the small prison in the Palace of Justice and is likely to be sent to the women’s prison in Chorrillos in south Lima.
In an eight-hour reading of his decision yesterday, after 11 days of sessions for the pre-trial custody hearing, Justice Victor Zúñiga said Fujimori posed not only a risk of obstruction of justice but also a flight risk. Zúñiga considered that the new evidence presented by the prosecution leads to a “grave suspicion” of organized crime within Fujimori’s political party and that Fujimori herself was involved in the laundering of campaign funds.
“This is not justice,” Fujimori said in a video for social media, recorded prior to the reading of the sentence. “This is an execution and political revenge.”
Fujimori’s attorney, Giuliana Loza, is appealing the ruling, which should be seen in court in the next two weeks.
“It’s not possible that without ever having been government, Keiko Fujimori should return to prison,” said Loza, adding that they will appeal to international institutions and governments for support.
It is only two months since Fujimori was released from an 18-month pre-trial custody sentence, of which she served 13 months. The Constitutional Court ruled last November to annul that pre-trial sentence, which initially was for 36 months, reduced to 18 by the Supreme Court earlier in the year. There was also an initial pre-trial custody of 10 days in November 2018, the same week her father Alberto Fujimori’s pardon was annulled.
This new pre-trial custody is related to new evidence in the investigation into funds for Fujimori’s presidential campaign in 2011, some of which while she still was a member of Congress before her campaign. The prosecution, led by district attorney Jose Perez, has presented the evidence and seeks to also present 78 new witnesses for the case.
Key witnesses now include a number of people who supported Fujimori’s campaign and worked closely with her, including the nephew of Jaime Yoshiyama, her campaign finance manager and a two-term cabinet member in her father Alberto Fujimori’s government. Others have come forward as state witnesses to give details on the recruitment of individuals in Lima and in the provinces who were willing to pretend they had made donations to the campaign. The prosecution obtained statements from 66 people who confessed to signing donation slips but who did not contribute any money.
Among the real campaign donors who have testified are Credicorp’s president Dionisio Romero Paoletti, who donated $3.65 mn in cash and has handed over details of the transactions; the Gloria dairy group’s president Victor Rodriguez, who donated $200,000 in cash; and Jose Sam Yuen, owner of the Hacienda and Golden Palace casinos and other game halls, who provided a monthly stipend, in cash, to Fujimori for expenses and recruited 11 people to pose as donors. Additionally, funds from the Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht, more than $1 mn, have been confirmed by Jorge Barata during depositions in Curitiba to the Peruvian Lava Jato investigative team.
None of these donations were reported to the national elections board and were “laundered” by the small, individual donors and through publicized cocktail parties and dinners.
Keiko Fujimori is expected to be formally charged in late February and the trial to begin by April. If found guilty, she could be facing a 15-year sentence.
