A Peruvian court sentenced former President Ollanta Humala to 15 years in prison for receiving illicit campaign funds from a Brazilian construction company, which made him the last former leader of the nation who is directed after bars.
Humala and his wife were accused of receiving funds from the Brazilian builder Odebrecht, now known as Novonor, in his successful 2011 electoral campaign.
Humala’s wife, Nadine Heredia, was also sentenced to 15 years in prison on Tuesday.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peru said that after the verdict, Heredia entered the Brazilian embassy in Lima to request asylum.
According to one of Humala’s lawyers in Brazil, Marco Aurelio de Carvalho, Heredia has cancer and had previously requested permission to travel to Brazil to receive treatment, but the application was rejected.
After the verdict, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peru said that Heredia entered the Brazilian embassy in Lima to request the diplomatic asylum, which was already granted to her and her youngest son.
The Peruvian government also said that it would provide safe passage and guarantees for transfer.
Humala, a retired military officer who directed the Andean nation from 2011 to 2016, will probably carry out his sentence in a police base especially to house the imprisoned leaders of Peru.
Former Presidents Alejandro Toledo and Pedro Castillo are currently imprisoned on the site, while Alberto Fujimori stayed there until his launch in 2023.
During his trial, which lasted three years after an investigation that began in 2016, Humala denounced charges as political persecution.
The prosecutors claimed that Humala received the illicit funds in his 2011 campaign against Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of the other former president, through the Nationalist Party of Humala.
His imprisonment will be immediately effective, even if he appeals the conviction. The court is expected to continue reading the complete sentence in the next few days.
Humala’s lawyer, Wilfredo Pedraza, described the sentence as “excessive”, saying that prosecutors did not prove the illegal origin of the funds. He said the defense plans to appeal once the final failure is issued on April 29.
A unique construction colossus, Odebrecht, has admitted that he distributed bribes to the governments of Latin America to help build their vast empire. He changed his name to Novonor in 2020 and is currently experiencing bankruptcy procedures.
Humala is the second former president of Peru to be imprisoned and the fourth to be involved for his role in the broad case of graft known as “Lava Jato”.
In 2019, former President Alan García committed suicide with a gunshot wound while the police descended at home to arrest him for alleged corruption related to the company.
The previous year, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was forced to resign after only two years in office. Meanwhile, Toledo was sentenced to two decades in prison last year after receiving $ 35 million in bribes in exchange for public works contracts.
The former Odebrecht executives have said in a Peruvian court that the company had financed almost all presidential candidates in the country for a period of almost 30 years.
