Peru's ex-president has 15-year jail sentence for corruption charges overturned
Ollanta Humala had been convicted of money laundering offences alongside his wife in 2025.
Peru's former president has had his 15-year prison sentence for corruption charges reversed by the constitutional court. Ollanta Humala, who governed Peru from 2011 to 2016, was convicted in 2025 for accepting illicit funds from the Venezuelan president and the Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht to finance his 2006 and 2011 election campaigns.
Humala had vowed to appeal the verdict, and now Peru's constitutional court has invalidated the entire criminal proceedings against him. Local media reports indicate that Humala is expected to be released from Barbadillo Prison in Lima, the capital.
Following the ruling, Humala's lawyer, Julio Espinoza Goyena, stated on social media that the court determined the electoral campaign contributions his client received "do not constitute money laundering." He added, "The Criminal Chamber currently handling the case must order the definitive dismissal of the proceedings and the FREEDOM of former President Ollanta Humala."
When Humala was convicted, his wife, Nadine Heredia, was also found guilty of money laundering and sentenced to 15 years in prison. However, she was granted safe passage to Brazil after seeking asylum at the Brazilian embassy.
Humala was the first of four Peruvian presidents to be investigated in connection with the Odebrecht scandal. Alejandro Toledo, who served from 2001 to 2006, was sentenced last year to over 20 years in prison for accepting $35 million (£26 million) in bribes from the company. Alan García, president from 1985 to 1990 and 2006 to 2011, died by suicide in 2019 as he faced imminent arrest over Odebrecht bribery allegations, which he denied. Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, in office from 2016 to 2018, faced impeachment proceedings after it was revealed that Odebrecht had paid him millions of dollars in a previous government role. The investigation into Kuczynski, who has always maintained the payments were legal, is ongoing.
At their own trial, Humala and his wife, co-founders of the Nationalist Party, were accused of receiving $3 million in illegal contributions from Odebrecht for his 2011 presidential campaign. They were also accused of taking $200,000 from Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez to fund the 2006 campaign. The couple consistently asserted they were victims of political persecution.
Humala, a former army officer, gained national attention in 2000 when he led a brief military rebellion against then-president Alberto Fujimori. In 2006, he ran for president on a platform inspired by Venezuela's socialist revolution under Chávez. After an initial unsuccessful attempt, Humala ran again in 2011, this time adopting a more moderate platform, emulating the policies of Brazil's then-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, to defeat right-wing rival Keiko Fujimori, Alberto Fujimori's eldest daughter.
His legal troubles began shortly after his term ended in 2016, when Odebrecht admitted to bribing Latin American government officials and political parties with hundreds of millions of dollars to secure business. Prosecutors accused Humala and his wife of receiving millions from Odebrecht, as well as illegal funding from Chávez for the 2006 presidential campaign. Humala and Heredia were subsequently held in pre-trial detention for a year before their eventual conviction in 2025.