Keiko Fujimori is expected to leave the women’s prison in Chorrillos today or at the latest by the weekend, now that the Constitutional Court has published its decision to grant her release.
The leader of the Fuerza Popular party has been in prison since Oct.31 last year. Her pre-trial custody term was due to expire in April 2020. Justice Richard Concepción set a 36-month custody term but the Superior Court of Appeals reduced the term by half.
In a four to three vote at the beginning of this week, the Constitutional Court, presided by Ernesto Blume, ruled in favor of the habeas corpus presented by Fujimori’s sister, Sachi Fujimori, on the grounds that the imprisonment “affected the right of personal liberty.” Blume, and justices Augusto Ferrero and Jose Luis Sardon ruled that allegations of obstruction were “mere presumptions.” Blume also proposed to penalize the judge, Richard Concepción, for ordering the pretrial custody but he only mustered two other votes.
The Court decision is seen as controversial by some analysts, and the fourth vote — from Carlos Ramos— was only given because Ramos believes that with the Congress now dissolved, Keiko Fujimori has little power and no tool to obstruct justice.
The coordinator of the Lava Jato investigation, Rafael Vela, considers the decision “contradictory, incongruent and with a suspiciously political tint,” an opinion shared by the district attorney Jose Domingo Perez.
Fujimori is under investigation for receiving illicit campaign funds and for possible money laundering, as well as obstruction of justice. The initial investigation covered donations of around $1 million in 2011 from the Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht, and the use of fake small donors to camouflage the source of much of the money. But over the past month Peruvian companies and corporation have been filing through the district attorney’s office to disclose their own contributions to her 2011 presidential campaign — Credicorp gave $3.65 million in cash to Fujimori in person, to offset the possible rise of the run-off candidate, Ollanta Humala (who won the presidential election).
OTHER KEY FIGURES IN THE LAVA JATO INVESTIGATION
Ollanta Humala (2011-2016), and his wife Nadine Heredia, were in pre-trial custody for allegations of receiving illict campaign funds and for money laundering. They were released by the Constitutional Court after nine months. Despite the fact that their investigation began over three years ago, they have yet to be charged with any crime.
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-2018) continues under house arrest, although the statute of limitations has run out on the initial investigation, which bore no relation to Odebrecht or the Lava Jato bribes. However, an investigation into possible money laundering was opened to allow the district attorney’s office to continue investigating indefinitely. His properties and bank accounts have been impounded. The court has also frozen the bank accounts of his driver and the driver’s wife on allegations of money laundering — the driver regularly received Kuczynski’s house management budget in his account while his wife withdrew her AFP pension fund in full to deposit into her account, with documents to prove the movements.
Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006) has been charged with receiving bribes from the Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht and possibly other firms during his presidency. He is in pretrial custody in San Francisco, California awaiting extradition hearings.
