Alejandro Toledo has been sentenced to 20 years and six months in prison for corruption, the news agency Reuters reports. According to the verdict, he is said to have accepted bribes from the construction giant Odebrecht, in exchange for them being allowed to build a huge road from the south coast of Peru into Brazil. The sentence is in line with what the prosecutor thought was right for the 78-year-old Toledo. It is Peru’s first high-profile conviction in the massive corruption investigation known as Operation Car Wash (Lava Jato). Denied criminal responsibility Toledo sat in power from 2001 to 2006, and is said to have received 35 million dollars from Odebrecht, now known as Novonor. During the year-long trial, he denied that he had asked for or received the money. Last week he asked the court to serve time at home because he has cancer. – Let me get well or die at home, said Toledo. OUT: Toledo on his way out of court Photo: Renato Pajuelo / AFP Several presidents under investigation The case is referred to as the world’s biggest corruption scandal. Two other former presidents in Peru, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and Ollanta Humala, are also under investigation for having been involved in the Odebrecht case. And Odebrecht has admitted in American law to bribes worth several hundred million dollars to political leaders in Latin America. Former CEO Marcelo Odebrecht was sentenced in 2016 to 19 years and four months in prison for the bribes, the sentence was later reduced to ten years. Toledo’s sentence was read out in a small room in the prison in Lima where he has been imprisoned for a year. In the same prison is also former president Pedro Castillo, who is imprisoned in another case, he is accused of rebellion after he tried to dissolve the Congress in Peru 2022. Published 22/10/2024, at 01.45 Updated 22.10.2024, at 02.02
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Peru’s ex-president sentenced to 20 years in prison – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
