Peru's Keiko Fujimori returns to prison over flight risk

Keiko Fujimori, the leader of Perus opposition Popular Force party, will return to pre-trial detention for 15 months after a court found that she posed a flight risk.

Fujimori had already served more than a year in jail between 2018 and 2019 at the request of prosecutor Jose Domingo Perez, who is investigating money laundering and illegal campaign financing accusations against her, but was released under a Constitutional Court order, reports Efe news.

On Tuesday, judge Victor Zuniga approved Perez's new petition and ordered Fujimori's detention by endorsing the prosecution's flight risk, obstruction of justice and severity of the crimes argument.

The magistrate said the detention meets proportionality standards, adding that they're suitable, adequate, necessary and proportionally strict.

Zuniga said Fujimori could have been involved in money laundering when she was a congress member from 2006 to 2011 and tried to have been the nation's "most important official" during the 2006 and 2011 presidential campaigns.

The judge deemed the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) a flight risk because of her lack of solid possessions on Peruvian soil.

In the last seven years, Keiko Fujimori and her family have lived in a house paying $1,600 in monthly rent, and the former presidential candidate has declared an income of more than $3,300 per month, which allegedly comes from party contributions.

The magistrate said that with such an income, she would have been able to purchase a home, but decided not to.

Minutes before arriving at the criminal court, where she was arrested, Keiko Fujimori recorded a message on her social networks in which she complained about this "new injustice" and "execution" promoted by "various interested parties."

The former legislator announced she would surrender to authorities immediately because she has "a clear conscience" and would break her silence to give "a political response to this persecution."

Keiko Fujimori added that she asked husband Mark Vito to present his case "to foreign governments and international organizations" to achieve the justice that, she considers, has been denied to her.

Vito told reporters "there is great injustice" against his wife and that they will "raise (their) voice in front of the international community" to show that there is no obstruction to justice.

( With inputs from IANS )