Keiko being escorted by police officers in a Judiciary office, in Lima. — AFP photo
LIMA: Police in Peru have arrested Keiko Fujimori, the opposition leader and daughter of the South American country’s disgraced ex-president, for alleged money laundering involving Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, her lawyer said Wednesday.
The 43-year-old was arrested on the orders of prosecutors investigating contributions to her campaign when she ran for president in 2011, according to her lawyer Giuliana Loza.
“Persecution has been disguised as justice in our country,” the politician wrote on Twitter.
Her arrest comes a week after her father Alberto Fujimori’s presidential pardon for crimes against humanity was revoked by a top court, which ordered him back to prison.
The leader of Popular Force, the biggest party in Congress, Keiko Fujimori was arrested after giving evidence at the public prosecutor’s office to a judge investigating alleged party funding from Odebrecht.
Her husband had accompanied her to the hearing in Lima before judge Richard Concepcion Carhuancho.
However, in a shock development, she was arrested and placed in preventive detention for 10 days, said Loza, who described the arrest as “an outrage and an abuse.”
Supporters quickly gathered outside the prison facility where she was being held to protest, many waving Popular Force or pro-Keiko banners.
A further 19 people have been arrested in the case linked to contributions to Popular Force during Keiko Fujimori’s 2011 presidential campaign.
“She has placed herself at the disposal of the prosecutor’s office,” said Loza.
Prosecutors have since June been investigating allegations that three former presidents took bribes disguised as campaign funds from Odebrecht, which is at the centre of political scandals across Latin America.
Former presidents Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Alan Garcia and Alejandro Toledo all took undeclared campaign contributions in exchange for pledges to have the Brazilian construction giant win local tenders, prosecutors said.
Kuczynski narrowly beat Keiko Fujimori to win the presidency in 2016.
However, he was forced to step down when impeachment seemed certain after he failed to shake off suspicions over millions of dollars in Odebrecht payments to his companies before he took office.
Prosecutors are also investigating former president Ollanta Humala for allegedly taking US$3 million in bribes from Odebrecht.
The investigation stems from questioning of Jorge Barata, a Brazilian who was a former Odebrecht boss in Peru.
He told Brazilian investigators that he doled out millions to Peruvian presidential candidates between 2001 and 2016.
In the 2011 elections, Odebrecht gave money to four candidates, Barata told prosecutors: US$1.2 million to Keiko Fujimori, US$700,000 to Toledo and US$300,000 to Kuczynski.
Up to her arrest on Wednesday, Keiko Fujimori had not been directly under investigation, as most of the prosecutors’ attention was on two of her senior 2011 campaign aides.
The two aides, Jaime Yoshiyama and Augusto Bedoya, were among the 19 others placed under arrest Wednesday.
Barata has previously identified both men as intermediaries. Their homes were raided in March.
He told Peruvian prosecutors in addition to the money he gave to the two Popular Force officials, he made another contribution of US$200,000 to Keiko through Peru’s business confederation CONFIEP. — AFP