Peruvian opposition leader Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori, was arrested on Wednesday as part of a money-laundering investigation.
The arrest came a week after a judge revoked a pardon for Keiko's father, a right-wing populist who ruled Peru from 1990-2000 and was later imprisoned for human rights crimes.
"This is called political persecution," 43-year-old Keiko said in a hand-written letter posted on her Twitter account. "I've been detained without any legal grounds."
A supporter of Keiko Fujimori protesting against her arrest, flashing banner "This is not justice. This is revenge" in Lima, Peru, October 10, 2018. /VCG Photo
Keiko has led her father's conservative movement since he fled the country in 2000 before resigning the presidency by fax from his family's homeland in Japan.
The arrest might give centrist president Martin Vizcarra a stronger hand in working with Congress, which is controlled by Keiko's party Popular Force.
Prosecutors allege Keiko led a criminal group inside her party that took 1.2 million US dollars in illegal funds from Brazilian builder Odebrecht for her 2011 presidential bid.
Keiko and her party have denied accepting bribes from Odebrecht.
The company has been at the center of Latin America's biggest graft scandal since acknowledging in a 2016 leniency deal that it bribed officials in a dozen countries, including Peru.
Earlier this year, former Peruvian president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned in an Odebrecht-linked scandal.
Journalists wait outside the police facility where Keiko Fujimori was taken after being arrested, Lima, Peru, October 10, 2018. /VCG Photo
Keiko, who served as Peru's "first lady" at 19 after her parents divorced, was shown on TV on Wednesday in a car in handcuffs after being detained.
A Columbia Business School graduate, she ran for president twice but was narrowly defeated by left-leaning Ollanta Humala in 2011 and by former Wall Street banker Kuczynski in 2016.
The arrest was requested by Jose Domingo, a prosecutor of money laundering cases who survived a recent shake-up in the prosecutors' office. The office did not comment on the arrest.
Fujimori will be detained for 10 days, along with 19 others, including two former ministers in her father's government, according to her lawyer, Giuliana Loza.
Popular Force called the arrest a "coup d'etat" aimed at dis-empowering Congress.
(Cover: Peruvian opposition leader Keiko Fujimori being escorted by a police officer in a judiciary office, Lima, Peru, October 10, 2018. /VCG Photo)