Peruvian court sentences former President Humala and wife to 15 years for money laundering

A Peruvian court has sentenced former President Ollanta Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, to 15 years in prison for laundering funds received from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht to finance his 2006 and 2011 campaigns

A Peruvian court on Tuesday sentenced former President Ollanta Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, to 15 years in prison for laundering funds received from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht to finance his 2006 and 2011 campaigns.

The judges of the National Superior Court found that Humala and Heredia received several million dollars in illegal contributions for these campaigns from Odebrecth and the government of then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez (1999-2013).

This verdict makes Humala the third former Peruvian president imprisoned for corruption in the last two decades. He joins Alejandro Toledo, sentenced in 2024 to 20 years for Odebrecht-related crimes, and Alberto Fujimori, who received multiple convictions for corruption and human rights abuses.

The trial began in 2022, and alongside the 62-year-old former military officer Humala and his 48-year-old wife, the court convicted eight others. Both Humala and Heredia were held in pretrial detention from 2017 to 2018 at the prosecutor’s request to prevent their flight.

Odebrecht’s 2016 admission of widespread bribery across Latin America preceded the initial investigations against Humala, which started in 2015, a year before the company’s revelations.

____

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america