Peru's opposition leader Keiko Fujimore jailed over bribery case

A judge in Peru has ordered that opposition leader Keiko Fujimori back to jail, ordering she should serve three years as a preventative measure while she awaits trial for corruption. Judge Richard Concepción said there was a high risk of Fujimori fleeing Peru.

Fujimori, 43, who was put in police custody for a week this month, should return to jail to keep her from fleeing before a trial for allegedly running a money laundering racket within her party, Fuerza Popular.

Fujimori has been accused of taking $1.2m in bribes from the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht in 2011. She denies any wrongdoing and says the accusations are politically motivated.

Judge Concepción said there was a "serious suspicion" that Fujimori was managing a "de facto criminal organisation that is entrenched within" her Popular Force political party.

Earlier this year, former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned in a scandal linked to the Odebrecht case.

Fujimori, who was in court, was taken into custody by police after the judge's ruling. The 43-year-old had already spent a week in police custody earlier this month but had been released on appeal.

Her lawyers say she is a victim of “political persecution” and have vowed to appeal.

It is a dramatic reversal of fortunes for Keiko Fujimori, who a few months ago was Peru’s most powerful politician with a congressional majority and an appetite to avenge her razor-thin 2016 electoral defeat to Pedro Pablo Kuczynski who resigned in March amid corruption allegations. The party currently controls Peru's Congress.

Fujimori's father, 80-year-old former President Alberto Fujimori, is serving a 25-year prison sentence for human rights abuses.