The case against the main opposition party Popular Force and its former head Keiko Fujimori is not over yet. Peruvian officials announced Thursday that they are opening an investigation into six lawyers from the party on charges of obstruction of justice.
The case against the party stems from alleged bribes that Fujimori and party officials took in a 2011 presidential campaign from the tainted Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht. Fujimori is currently serving a three-year preventive prison sentence, though she has not yet been declared guilty of the money laundering charges against her.
Fujimori’s top laywer Guiliana Loza is one of the six accused, as well as Arsenio Ore Guardia, Edward Garcia Navarro, Luis Ernesto Lazo Mendoza, Lorena Mariana Gamero Calero, and Danae Alessandra Calderon Castro, according to the state-owned news agency Andina.
Prosecutor José Domingo Pérez announced the pending investigations Thursday. Pérez said in his announcement that prosecutors have found evidence that the mentioned lawyers put pressure on witnesses to not testify against Fujimori in her pretrial hearings.
When Judge Richard Concepción gave his decision in October regarding Fujimori’s preventive prison sentence, he did not mince words in his sentencing.
“There is a de facto criminal organization that was created in parallel with the party,” Concepción said. “They took decisions that were sent to the political committee to be assessed and debated, and then passed to the party legislators’ meetings.”