Peru’s ex‑president Ollanta Humala freed after 15‑year sentence overturned
The constitutional court of Peru has declared the entire criminal case against former president Ollanta Humala null and void, clearing him of a 15‑year jail sentence previously handed down for corruption.
Humala, who headed the country from 2011‑2016, was found guilty in 2025 of taking illegal funds from Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez and the Brazilian engineering firm Odebrecht to finance his presidential campaigns in 2006 and 2011.
In a statement on social media, his lawyer Julio Espinoza Goyena said the court recognised that the money contributed to his campaigns was not a case of money laundering and that the case should be dismissed, calling for Humala’s freedom.
The ruling means Humala is expected to be released from the Barbadillo prison in Lima, where he had been detained since the conviction.
The ex‑president’s wife, Nadine Heredia, had also been convicted of money laundering but was given safe passage to Brazil after seeking asylum in the Brazilian embassy. Humala’s case is part of a broader Odebrecht scandal that has seen other former Peruvian leaders, such as Alejandro Toledo and Alan García, face long prison terms or death.
Investigators say the Odebrecht investigation remains open, and Humala’s case may serve as a precedent for how the Peruvian judiciary handles future corruption charges.
