The next country president and the political party to support Congress they could have a strained relationship with the prosecution and the judiciary, On suspicion of money laundering or corruption of officials.
This situation can occur with any of the two presidential candidates in the race, who wins the second round: the rural master Pedro Castell Terrones and the politician Keiko Fujimori Higuchi.
The Cerrón factor
The rural master Pere Castell has no legal process, but his main political support, the doctor Vladimir Cerrón, founding leader of the Free Peru, and his brother, Waldemar Cerrón, eventual congressman of the Free Peru for Junin.
Cerrón is serving a four-year prison sentence, which was suspended for three years of rules of conduct. The sentence expires in October 2022. But an appeal to the Supreme Court of Justice is still pending.
He was convicted of a crime of negotiation incompatible with favoring a consortium in sanitation works in the city of Oroya, When assuming like regional governor of Junín, 2010-2014. This conviction removed him from a second term as regional governor.
However, the most complicated are two other investigations he has in the Public Ministry. 1) The Sixth Corporate Criminal Prosecutor’s Office of Huancayo is investigating him, along with his brothers Waldemar Cerrón Roja and Fritz Elías Cerrón Rojas and other leaders of his party, for alleged money laundering.
In addition, 2) the supra-provincial Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office is investigating Cerrón for facts related to the Antalsis case and the businessman Martín Belaunde Lossio. According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Cerrón allegedly received two Nissan Frontier vans in the 2010 elections, in exchange for which he favored the company Antalsis and the Asia SAC Corporation in the contracts for the construction of the Comuneros bridges. and Identity.
The Fujimori case
Keiko Fujimori and his party Força Popular, and formerly Força 2011, have been under investigation since 2015 for alleged money laundering in the fundraising and use of millions of soles for the 2011 and 2016 political campaigns.
Last March, prosecutor José Domingo Pérez requested 30 years and 10 months in prison for Fujimori for alleged crimes of money laundering, criminal organization, obstruction of justice and misrepresentation.
The indictment includes her husband Mark Vito, her lawyers and other important Popular Force leaders. In addition, the prosecutor asked the Judiciary that in the event of a conviction be ordered, the dissolution of the Fujimori political grouping be ordered as an instrument of the alleged crime.
The charges of obstruction of justice have to do with activities from when he was a congressman of the Popular Force, in the period 2016-2019, which would have tried to influence the former Attorney General of the Nation Pere Chávarry to frustrate the investigations.
Fujimori rejects the charges and attributes the charges to political persecution. According to the prosecution, Fujimori and his party have reportedly “laundered” more than 15 million soles of illicit origin in election campaigns.
The money came from Odebrecht and Peruvian businessmen, whom he would supposedly favor with laws and contracts, in case he won the election and came to the presidency.
The case is pending control of the prosecution as the respective trial is held, which could still take about three years before a sentence is handed down. As long as there is no confirmed conviction, Keiko Fujimori enjoys all his rights and can assume the presidency.
Does the trial continue or is it suspended?
Constitutionalist Omar Cairo considers that, if Keiko Fujimori is elected president, by mandate of article 117 of the Constitution, the criminal proceedings against him will be suspended until July 2026.
Inside the PJ and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, they consider that this article 117 speaks of not being able to present an accusation, but not of accusations that were presented before.
They mention the case of Congressman Daniel Urresti who is attending a trial or summonses to former President Martin Vizcarra to testify in the Swing case.
In any case, the process would advance until the summons to public trial, at which time it would be reserved against Fujimori, and would continue against the others involved.
Judges. Judiciary will have the final decision. Photo: Virgili Grajeda / La República
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Crime. Charges of money laundering offenses in an election campaign are still a matter of legal debate. In 2018, Congress incorporated into the Penal Code the crime of illicit financing of political campaigns. The Prosecutor’s Office considers that these are two different crimes.
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