LIMA (AP) — Keiko Fujimori, leader of the Fuerza Popular party, appeared Monday for the fifth time at a trial for alleged money laundering that began in early July, where her defense denied the accusations. Prosecutors are seeking 30 years in prison for the former presidential candidate and the dissolution of her influential political group.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office accuses Fujimori of laundering $17.3 million by raising money from companies, including Odebrecht, for his presidential campaigns in 2011 and 2016 and hiding it with false records of contributions to cocktail parties and raffles. Fujimori, 49, lost both campaigns and another in 2021.
The money laundering trial began on July 1 and Monday was the fifth hearing, where the defense presented its arguments.
Fujimori’s lawyer, Giulliana Loza, told the court in Lima that the accusation “will collapse with a single question: where is the money laundering? On behalf of Mrs. Keiko Fujimori, I only ask for justice.”
He said that the prosecution would not be able to prove its accusations and that the businessmen had provided legal money.
At the end of the hearing, Keiko Fujimori made a statement to the media to defend herself against the accusations, but did not give details about the announcement she made the day before regarding the presidential candidacy of her father, former president Alberto Fujimori, 85 years old.
“There is no money laundering, what there is is political persecution and a circus by a prosecutor obsessed with me and with Fuerza Popular,” said the former presidential candidate.
On Sunday afternoon, Keiko Fujimori wrote on her social networks that she and her father had spoken “and decided together that he will be the presidential candidate.” Alberto Fujimori has not yet made any statements about his candidacy.
Despite the announcement, Peruvian law establishes that anyone who has been found guilty of corruption, as is the case of Alberto Fujimori, cannot run for president or vice president of the country.
A group of Fujimori family supporters arrived outside the court to show their support, as they have done on other occasions since six years ago when Keiko Fujimori began to be investigated.
Alberto Fujimori, who was convicted in 2009 for the murder of 25 Peruvians during his administration (1990-2000), has three other convictions for corruption and owes 15 million dollars to the public coffers, according to the Attorney General’s Office specializing in corruption crimes.
The former president was extradited from Chile in 2007 and sent to a prison for presidents in Lima, where he remained imprisoned until December 2023.
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2024-07-17 20:19:05