LIMA (Reuters) – A Peruvian judge on Monday dismissed a money-laundering trial that began last year involving former presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, who was accused of receiving illegal funds from a Brazilian construction company and local businesses.
The politician, the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, faced 30 years in prison on charges of running a criminal organization that received illegal contributions to her 2011 and 2016 election campaigns.
Judge Mercedes Caballero said at the hearing that Fujiori, along with the other defendants, was excluded from the trial in accordance with a recent ruling by the country’s constitutional court, which excluded another defendant on the grounds that his right to defense had been violated.
Keiko Fujimori (49) ran three times for president of that Andean country. The last candidate was in 2021, when she lost to leftist Pedro Castillo, who was impeached and imprisoned in late 2022 after attempting to illegally dissolve Congress.
He is currently leading the influential right-wing party Narodna šnaga.
Her father, Alberto Fujimori, died last September, almost a year after he was released from prison where he had served 16 years of a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses during his presidency.
