Prosecutors are seeking 30 years in prison for Fujimori on the grounds that he had made allegations of corrupt funds in previous campaigns.

A Peruvian judge rejected the prosecutor’s request to return the presidential election candidate Keiko Fujimori to prison because she allegedly failed to comply with the bail conditions she faces on money laundering and corruption charges.

Fujimori, the eldest daughter of the imprisoned former President Alberto Fujimori, faces trial for claiming that she received $1.2 million from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht to fund the 2011 and 2016 presidential elections.

Prosecutor José Domingo Pérez told Judge Víctor Zúñiga on Monday that Fujimori had contacted a witness in the case and violated bail restrictions.

However, the judge believed that the accusation was “unfounded” because she had not been warned, so Fujimori’s bail period was extended.

For her part, Fujimori said the prosecutor’s request was “arbitrary, disproportionate and unjust” because dozens of her supporters demonstrated outside.

Fujimori has been detained for 16 months before trial. She denied the accusations against her.

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, Fujimori was conditionally released in May last year and was prohibited from leaving Peru or communicating with co-defendants or witnesses in the case.

Prosecutors have stated that they will seek a sentence of 30 years in prison for the 46-year-old daughter of the former president who was convicted.

Potential flash point

After the second round of the presidential vote on June 6, when the country was already highly nervous, the hearing was a potential flashpoint.

Fujimori faced the socialist Pedro Castillo.

Castillo declared his victory After appearing with more than 44,058 votes, the total number of votes exceeded 17.5 million.

However, Fujimori refused to admit defeat and requested the disqualification of up to 200,000 votes on the grounds of fraud, but she did not provide public evidence.

In the election, Castillo was a teacher and union leader, and was supported in most impoverished rural areas. He and the free market businessman Fujimori are descendants of a powerful family whose supporters include most of Peru Urban elites.

During the weekend, thousands of supporters of the two candidates took to the streets calling for democracy to prevail, And let the election jury weighing Fujimori fraud charges work faster.

If Fujimori wins the election, criminal proceedings against her will cease until her term ends.

Ipsos Peru, a polling agency, said that statistical analysis of votes shows that there is no evidence that abnormal voting patterns are biased towards any one candidate.