A Peruvian court docket 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 court docket 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 Judge Nayko Coronado ordered the arrest of Heredia, who didn’t attend the sentencing listening to.
Humala, a former military officer who led the nation from 2011 to 2016, turned 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 2001-06) was sentenced final 12 months to greater than 20 years in jail for accepting multi-million-dollar bribes in trade for presidency contracts.
Investigations proceed into the fourth ex-president who was implicated, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (in workplace from 2016-2018).
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 firm is taken into account chargeable for one of many greatest international 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 real estate purchases” made with a number of the cash.
They have constantly denied all expenses, and Humala’s authorized staff mentioned he would attraction the sentence.
In 2016, Odebrecht agreed to pay $3.5 billion in penalties in Brazil, the United States and Switzerland arising out of funds of greater than $788 million in bribes to international leaders and authorities officers in an effort to win infrastructure tasks.
The firm admitted having paid at the very least $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 13 months in detention in a case linked to Odebrecht.
Source: www.anews.com.tr