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Peru’s Keiko Fujimori leaves prison after top court ruling

Keiko Fujimori, right, is embraced by her husband Mark Vito Villanela after being released from the Chorillos prison in Lima, Peru, Friday, Nov. 29, 2019. The Constitutional Tribunal narrowly approved a habeas corpus request to free Fujimori from detention while she is investigated for alleged accusations she accepted money from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.(AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

LIMA, Peru — Once-powerful opposition leader and two-time Peruvian presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori has left prison to the cheers of her supporters and criticism by opponents who called it another blow for impunity for the corrupt.

Smiling broadly, the daughter of jailed ex-President Alberto Fujimori walked out of the women’s prison in the Lima district of Chorrillos and was handed a bouquet of roses by her husband, Mark Villanella, who had been on a hunger strike demanding her release.

Keiko Fujimori called her prison stay the “most painful time of my life, so the first thing I want to do now is thank God for giving me the strength to resist.”

Fujimori was freed after Peru’s constitutional Tribunal approved a request to release her from detention while she is investigated for alleged corruption.

Mauricio Munoz And Jorge Rueda, The Associated Press