Peruvian Ex-President Humala Sentenced to 15 Years for Laundering Bribes, Wife Seeks Asylum
Former Peruvian President Ollanta Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, have been sentenced to 15 years in prison for laundering $3 million received from Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht and $200,000 from the government of then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Al Jazeera reports.
The court delivered the verdict on Tuesday, leading to Humala’s immediate arrest and detention at a police station. Heredia, however, has requested asylum at the Brazilian embassy in Lima, according to Peru’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The ministry has granted her safe passage to travel to Brazil with her youngest son.
Humala, 62, a retired military officer who served as president of the Andean nation from 2011 to 2016, denounced the charges as political persecution throughout his three-year trial, which began following an investigation in 2016. His legal team plans to appeal the verdict.
Prosecutors alleged that Humala received the illicit funds through his Nationalist Party during his 2011 campaign against Keiko Fujimori, daughter of another former president. He is expected to serve his sentence at a police base specifically designed to house Peru’s jailed leaders.
This case is part of a larger wave of corruption scandals that have plagued Peruvian politics in recent years. Former President Alejandro Toledo, who was in power from 2001 to 2006, was sentenced last year to over 20 years in prison for accepting $35 million in bribes in exchange for government contracts.
Another former President, Pedro Castillo, is currently detained and facing charges of “rebellion” after his failed attempt to dissolve Congress in 2022.
In a tragic turn, former President Alan Garcia took his own life in 2019 as police arrived at his home to arrest him for alleged corruption related to Odebrecht.
The Odebrecht scandal has reverberated throughout Latin America. In 2016, the company agreed to pay $3.5 billion in penalties across Brazil, the United States, and Switzerland, admitting to paying more than $788 million in bribes to foreign leaders and government officials to secure infrastructure projects.
