Lima:
A Peruvian courtroom on Tuesday sentenced ex-president Ollanta Humala and his spouse to fifteen years in jail for graft linked to a globe-spanning corruption scandal involving Brazilian development group Odebrecht paying bribes to politicians.
The courtroom discovered the 62-year-old and his spouse Nadine Heredia responsible of cash laundering for receiving unlawful contributions from Odebrecht and the Venezuelan authorities in two presidential campaigns.
Humala was taken into custody within the courtroom after the ruling, and Decide Nayko Coronado ordered the arrest of Heredia, who didn’t attend the sentencing listening to.
Heredia later sought asylum on the Brazilian embassy in Lima.
Humala, a former military officer who led the nation from 2011 to 2016, grew to become in 2022 the primary Peruvian ex-president to go on trial within the Odebrecht corruption scandal, which has additionally seen three different former presidents implicated.
Two-term chief Alan Garcia dedicated suicide in 2019 when police got here to his home to arrest him, whereas Alejandro Toledo (in energy from 2001 to 2006) was sentenced final 12 months to greater than 20 years in jail for accepting multi-million-dollar bribes in change for presidency contracts.
Investigations proceed into the fourth ex-president who was implicated, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (in workplace from 2016 to 2018).
Prosecutors had sought a 20-year jail time period for Humala and 26 years for Heredia for accepting $3 million in unlawful contributions for his 2011 marketing campaign from Odebrecht.
The corporate is taken into account liable for one of many largest overseas bribery schemes in historical past.
– Bribes for affect –
The pair have been additionally charged with illegally diverting about $200,000 despatched by Venezuela’s then-president Hugo Chavez for Humala’s failed 2006 marketing campaign, and Heredia with “concealment of actual property purchases” made with among the cash.
They’ve constantly denied all fees, and Humala’s authorized staff stated he would enchantment the sentence.
Brazil’s overseas ministry stated Tuesday Heredia had sought diplomatic asylum at its embassy, and the 2 governments have been “in fixed communication relating to this example.”
In 2016, Odebrecht agreed to pay $3.5 billion in penalties in Brazil, america and Switzerland arising out of funds of greater than $788 million in bribes to overseas leaders and authorities officers in an effort to win infrastructure tasks.
The corporate admitted having paid not less than $29 million in bribes to Peruvian officers between 2005 and 2014.
Leftist Humala got here to the presidency in 2011 after beating right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori in a runoff election.
Fujimori herself spent 16 months in pre-trial detention in a case linked to Odebrecht.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
