On Monday (21), the Peruvian court rejected the prosecution’s request to revoke the provisional release of Keiko Fujimori, the country’s presidential candidate.
On June 10, prosecutor José Domingo Pérez, who works with Lava Jato’s Peruvian team, asked Judge Víctor Zúñiga for a new preventive detention for failing to respect the restriction on communication with witnesses in the case. Pérez said there was “public and notorious” evidence of contact with MP Miguel Torres Morales, also accused and with whom Keiko was not allowed to speak.
Zúñiga, however, determined in its decision that the claim was unfounded.
On the same day as the arrest request, the right-wing candidate, accused of money laundering and receiving money and bribes during her election campaigns, called a fair press conference next to Morales to qualify the measure as a political act and say that he would not stop “giving his face to justice as he always has”.
“I am surprised that the request has arrived today, just as we are calling for democracy to be respected by complying with our demands to challenge the minutes,” said Keiko, who has been jailed for more than one year while the investigation was unfolding. in law. “I will not be distracted by this arrest warrant, my attention is focused on reviewing the suspicious records.”
The candidate is seeking in court to overturn the small difference by which she was defeated in the presidential dispute with leftist Pedro Castillo – even though the winner has not been officially announced.
With 100% of the ballot boxes counted, the result points to 50.12% for the leftist and 49.87% for the daughter of the former dictator Alberto Fujimori. The official announcement, however, still depends on the National Electoral Jury, responsible for analyzing the contestation of the voting records, since Keiko, immersed in a speech that there had been election fraud, demanded the revision. of 300,000 votes and the other cancellation. 200 thousand.
The 60 special electoral juries (JEE) must decide, first of all, on the validity of the thousands of votes contested by the delegates of the parties of each candidate. Then, the National Electoral Jury (JNE) analyzes the decisions of the JEE and proclaims the winner.
On June 9, Keiko made a statement in which she highlighted alleged irregularities committed by Castillo’s supporters, which she said amounted to “systematic fraud”. She also submitted requests to challenge several voting records to the national election jury.
In his appearance before Castillo, in the first reports published by Onpe, the Peruvian electoral body, with nearly six percentage points of advantage, Keiko reacted with moderation and asked for caution from his voters, declaring that ‘there was no winner or loser in the election. and defend the unity of the Peruvians.
Also on Sunday (6) of the poll, during a breakfast with the voters – a tradition of presidential candidates on polling day – she declared that she would accept the results and pledged to respect the popular will. “This will be the decision our country sets, whether I am to serve as president or as a private citizen.”
Keiko’s speech, however, changed tone as the poll progressed and Castillo took the lead. The candidate accused the existence of fraud and was contradicted by international observers.
Castillo, on the other hand, declared himself the winner on Tuesday (8) after the election, although electoral bodies have made no official statement confirming the result.
If Castillo’s victory materializes, he will be the first Peruvian president without ties to political, economic and cultural elites. Trade unionist and high school teacher, he became known for having led teachers’ strikes, the most famous of them in 2017. Castillo defends higher wages for employees in the education sector, holds a speech anti-corruption and proposes to dissolve the Constitutional Court and the Constitution of 1993. – according to him, officials to allow irregular practices.
One of her successes also represents Keiko’s third defeat at the polls – she was previously a candidate in 2011 and 2016, losing both times in the second round. As a result, the politician, who took it upon himself to rebuild almost from the ashes of the right-wing political movement founded by his father, the former dictator Alberto Fujimori in 1990, should stand trial at the risk of ending up in prison.