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He Constitutional Court (TC) of Peru ordered to leave “without effect” the tax accusation against the political leader Keiko Fujimori and against her training, Popular Forceafter determining that the process that was followed by the alleged irregular financing of his 2011 and 2016 electoral campaigns “lacks legal support”.
The decision of the TC declared “founded” a lawsuit filed by the defense of the daughter and political heir of former President Alberto Fujimori and ordered that this process, known as the ‘cocktails’ case.
Fujimori’s lawyer, Giulliana Loza, had requested that the judicial resolutions linked to the process involving her client be declared null and void for the crimes of money laundering, criminal organization, false declaration and generic falsehood, as well as “all preceding acts” followed since the beginning of the preliminary investigations, in 2017.
Loza argued that Before November 2016, receiving money to finance a campaign was not considered politics could imply a money laundering crime and that the Prosecutor’s Office added new elements to the case in October 2018 “without respecting the right to defense.”
The arguments of the TC
In that sense, the decision of the TC, which was taken with the vote of five of the seven members of the court on October 2, declared their claim “founded.”
For this reason, it ordered the National Superior Court of Justice to resolve “within the shortest possible time and taking into account the considerations indicated in this ruling,” the legal situation of Keiko Fujimori.
“We are not declaring the innocence or guilt of the beneficiary, but rather confirming the infeasibility of continuing with an accusation that lacks legal basis and is clearly contrary to what is established in the Constitution,” the resolution clarified.
However, in a singular vote, the president of the TC, Luz Pacheco, considered that Loza’s request should be declared “inadmissible”, since the constitutional judge does not have among its functions to determine whether or not the conduct of the accused “fits with a certain criminal type or classify the criminal type itself.”
The ‘cocktails case’
The so-called ‘cocktails case’ was opened against Fujimori and other leaders of the Fuerza Popular party for the alleged irregular financing of his 2011 and 2016 electoral campaigns with money from private companies, which the political group explained as coming from a series of ‘cocktails’ in which sympathizers participated.
Among the alleged irregular donors Supporting Fujimori’s campaigns were the Brazilian company Odebrecht and several Peruvian economic conglomerates, which led the Prosecutor’s Office to consider that a “criminal organization” had been formed, Therefore, the dissolution of Fuerza Popular should also be ordered.
On July 2, the prosecutor’s team investigating the Lava Jato case in Peru extended Fujimori’s prison sentence for this case to 35 years, by presenting a new criminal accusation after the oral trial, in which he requested 30 years in prison for politics, was annulled in April and the process returned to the previous accusation stage.
The presentation of the new accusation occurred in compliance with another resolution issued in 2023 by the TC and after the Second Criminal Appeals Chamber of the Judiciary declared an appeal by the anti-corruption prosecutor José Domingo Pérez unfounded, thus ratifying the decision of the Constitutional Court.
In addition to ordering that the Prosecutor’s Office issue a new accusation in accordance with procedure, the TC also maintained that there were defects in the prosecution order that made the continuity of the oral trial, which had begun on July 1, 2024, unsustainable.