Peru court to decide on long detention of Keiko Fujimori

A Peruvian court will decide on Sunday whether to grant a prosecutor’s request to place opposition leader Keiko Fujimori in preventive detention for 36 months, which would likely scupper her 2021 presidential hopes.

Anti-corruption prosecutor Jose Domingo Perez has asked the court to hold Fujimori and 11 others for the lengthy period as his team investigates who benefited from millions of dollars in campaign bribes from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.

Judge Richard Concepcion Carhuancho of the First Preliminary Investigation Court will hear the case on Sunday morning, the judiciary said.

He is the same judge that earlier this month allowed Lopez’s request to hold Fujimori in preventive detention for 10 days.

Peru’s constitution allows for suspects to be held without trial for up to 36 months in complex cases such as the Odebrecht investigation, which involves tracing millions of dollars in illicit payments. It also ensures that suspects cannot interfere with evidence or witnesses in an ongoing investigation.

Acceding to the prosecutor’s request would all but end Keiko’s chances of the presidency, after she lost run-offs in 2011 and 2016.

Lopez lodged his request Friday, only two days after an appeals court ordered Fujimori’s release from a week-long stay in prison as part of the same investigation.