Ollanta Humala and his family were sentenced to 15 years in prison on Tuesday in Peru for graft in connection with a world-wide corruption scandal involving the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht paying bribes to lawmakers.
The 62-year-old and his family Nadine Heredia were found guilty of money laundering by the court after receiving improper contributions from Odebrecht and the Colombian state during two presidential campaigns. Right after the ruling was read out, Humala was taken into custody in the court and afterward imprisoned in a police station. His attorneys have indicated that they will charm their verdict.
Heredia, who did not show up for the punishment reading and sought asylum at the Portuguese embassy in Lima, was also ordered to be detained by Judge Nayko Coronado. Eventually, Peru’s foreign ministry announced that she received safe passage that with her son after speaking with Brazil.
In the Odebrecht bribery scandal, which has also implicated three other former president, Humala, a former military commander who led the nation from 2011 to 2016, became the first ex-president of Peru to face trial in 2022.
In 2019, two-term president Alan Garcia killed himself when police stormed his home, and Alejandro Toledo, who served as president from 2001 to 2006, was given a more than 20-year prison sentence last year for accepting multi-million-dollar bribes in exchange for state contracts.
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who served in business from 2016 to 2018, is the third ex-president in question. For accepting$ 3 million in illegal efforts from Odebrecht for his 2011 campaign, the prosecution had asked for a 20-year prison term for Humala and a 26-year sentence for Heredia. One of the biggest foreign corruption methods in history is thought to have been caused by the business.
Bribes for power
The pair were even accused of illegally defrauding Hugo Chavez, the country’s then-president, of$ 200, 000 for Humala’s failed 2006 battle, and Heredia of making” concealment of real estate purchases” with some of the funds. Humala’s legal team stated that he would appeal the word despite the fact that they have persistently denied all allegations.
In Brazil, the United States, and Switzerland, Odebrecht agreed to pay$ 3.5 billion in sanctions in 2016 for money paid to foreign officials and government officials in order to succeed network jobs. The business admitted to paying Peruvian authorities at least$ 29 million between 2005 and 2014.
Leftist Humala won the election for president in 2011 after defeating Keiko Fujimori in a discharge. In a situation involving Odebrecht, Fujimori herself spent 16 months in pre-trial confinement.
