Peru Court Orders Release of Opposition Leader Keiko Fujimori

(Bloomberg) -- Peru’s constitutional court ordered the immediate release of opposition leader Keiko Fujimori, who is serving an 18-month preventive jail sentence as part of a money laundering probe.

The judges voted 4-3 in favor of her release on the grounds her constitutional rights had been violated, court president Ernesto Blume said on Monday at a news conference in Lima, according to video broadcast by Canal N network. The ruling allows Fujimori to face her investigation as a free woman, though it doesn’t absolve her, he said.

Fujimori was jailed in October 2018 for obstructing a money laundering probe against her. The 44-year-old daughter of former autocrat Alberto Fujimori allegedly received $1 million in campaign donations from Odebrecht SA, the Brazilian builder at the center of Peru’s biggest-ever bribery probe. She hasn’t been formally charged and says the allegations are politically motivated.

Fujimori should be released on Thursday once the court has formally published its decision, her lawyer Giulliana Loza, told reporters.

President Martin Vizcarra’s decision to dissolve Congress and call new elections leaves Fujimori weakened politically. Freedom from jail will expose her to greater public scrutiny as the laundering investigation continues. It may also hinder her party’s campaign in the run up to congressional elections in January, David Sulmont, a political scientist at Pontifcia Universidad Catolica del Peru, said.

“It’s not an easy situation for Fujimori. She no longer has a thumping parliamentary majority to defend her,” Sulmont said by phone from Lima.

Peru’s banking regulator said it will probe the use of cash in campaign financing after Credicorp Ltd. Chairman Dionisio Romero told prosecutors last week that the company donated $3.7 million to Fujimori’s 2011 presidential bid. Credicorp is the largest financial holding company in Peru.

To contact the reporter on this story: John Quigley in Lima at jquigley8@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Bruce Douglas

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