The Prosecutor's Office of Peru has formalized the departure of anti-corruption prosecutor José Domingo Pérez, responsible for the investigation against candidate Keiko Fujimori for alleged illicit financing of her electoral campaigns. The dismissal occurs after the National Justice Board (JNJ) decided not to ratify him in his position, a stage in which he accumulated nearly a hundred disciplinary files.
Pérez, who currently serves as the lawyer for former president Pedro Castillo, had become an emblematic figure in the fight against corruption. He was a central piece in the process against Fujimori and the prosecutor who requested her provisional imprisonment. However, at the end of 2025, the Constitutional Court dismissed the case for irregular financing of the 2011 and 2016 campaigns, framed within the 'Cocktails' case.
At the beginning of 2025, he was removed from that procedure due to alleged irregularities during the investigation, which ultimately led to his departure decided by the National Justice Board (JNJ). During his career, Pérez secured a 20-year prison sentence against former president Alejandro Toledo for corruption and money laundering offenses, and was part of the prosecution team against former president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.
His critics have recurrently accused him of alleged "political" motivations. Fujimori herself took advantage of Pérez taking on Castillo's defense to insist that he was never an independent prosecutor, but a partisan operator. "His true political color has been demonstrated," she said.
During his time as an anti-corruption prosecutor, Pérez accumulated a total of 98 disciplinary proceedings, of which 84 have already been resolved, including one that concluded with a suspension from the exercise of his duties.
The same document, published in the official State gazette, specifies that his departure from the Public Ministry is carried out without prejudice to any legal actions that may arise from complaints and reports still pending resolution.