Peru opposition leader Keiko Fujimori detained in money laundering probe

Former Peruvian presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori was detained on Wednesday as part of a money-laundering investigation, the latest political leader in the Andean nation to face scrutiny over alleged corruption.

Fujimori's lawyer, Giuliana Loza, told local media that the conservative politician was taken into custody after she showed up at the chief prosecutor's office to provide testimony into an ongoing probe into dubious financial contributions to her 2011 presidential campaign. The daughter of former strongman Alberto Fujimori will initially be held for 10 days.

The judge handling the case also ordered the arrest of 19 other people, including several former ministers in her father's government and senior officials in her own conservative Popular Force party.

The probe was launched in 2016, amid another presidential run by Keiko Fujimori, and was immediately by her many supporters as politically motivated.

"This isn't justice. It's politics and it's abusive," Fujimori's American husband, Mark Villanella, who had also been under investigation in the same case, told reporters outside the prosecutor's office.

But many Peruvians, including current President Martin Vizcarra, have been cheering on the house cleaning, fed up with decades of entrenched corruption.

The judge handling the probe has also ordered the arrest of two former presidents, Ollanta Humala and Alejandro Toledo, for receiving money from Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction firm at the heart of Latin America's largest graft scandal. Both have denied any wrongdoing

Fujimori lost to Pedro Pablo Kuczynski by fewer than 50,000 votes in the 2016 presidential runoff. But her party emerged in a kingmaking role with a majority of seats in Congress as many Peruvians were nostalgic for the economic boom that coincided with her father's iron-fisted rule between 1990 and 2000.

However, the younger Fujimori's power has waned under Vizcarra, who stepped into the presidency after Kuczynski resigned earlier this year.

Last week, a judge ordered the elder Fujimori be returned to jail to finish a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses. Kuczynski had pardoned the former strongman last Christmas eve on humanitarian grounds in what was widely seen as a closed-door deal to stave off threats of impeachment.

Vizcarra, despite having little representation in Congress, has also managed to outmanoeuvre Fujimori's party by pushing through Congress plans for a December referendum to impose term limits on lawmakers amid other anti-corruption measures.