Judge issues arrest warrant for Fujimori ally over corruption probe

LIMA: A Peruvian judge issued an international arrest warrant for an ally of jailed opposition leader Keiko Fujimori in relation to the same money laundering probe that has seen former president Alberto Fujimori’s daughter locked up for three years of preventative detention.

Judge Richard Concepcion Carhuancho also ordered Jaime Yoshiyama to join Fujimori in pretrial detention for three years.

Yoshiyama ran for vicepresident at the 2011 election when Keiko Fujimori first lost a presidential run-off. She is accused of accepting US$1.2 million in illicit party funding from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht for her 2011 presidential campaign.

Yoshiyama is currently recovering in Miami following an operation on his face, his lawyer said.

In his ruling issued, Carhuancho ordered businessman Augusto Bedoya, one of Fujimori’s campaign leaders in 2011, not to leave Peru in the next three years.

The judge said ‘Yoshiyama’s conduct in evading justice’ by leaving the country meant ‘pre-trial detention becomes indispensable.’ Prosecutors have accused a total of 11 people linked to Fujimori’s Popular Force party of running ‘a criminal organisation’ in order to raise illicit funding for her 2011 campaign. Seven of those are in pre-trial detention.

Attorney-general Jose Domingo Perez claims Yoshiyama and Bedoya each received US$500,000 for the campaign with the other US$200,000 allegedly paid by Odebrecht going to a fund for businessmen supporting Fujimori’s campaign.

Her disgraced father, president from 1990-2000, is serving a 25year sentence for crimes against humanity and corruption.

Peru is one of the Latin American countries worst affected by the multi-million dollar, region-wide Odebrecht corruption scandal.

The Brazilian company has admitted paying at least US$29 million in bribes to Peruvian officials since 2004.

Former Peru president Alan Garcia has been barred from leaving the country while under investigation and last week entered the Uruguay embassy in Lima seeking political asylum.

Three more ex-presidents, Alejandro Toledo, Ollanta Humala and Pedro Pablo Kczynski are also under investigation.

Odebrecht has admitted paying US$788 million in bribes across 12 countries to secure public works contracts. — AFP