[Source: Reuters]

A Peruvian court on Tuesday sentenced ex-President Ollanta Humala to 15 years in prison for receiving illicit campaign funds from a Brazilian construction firm, making him the nation’s latest former leader to head behind bars.

Humala and his wife were accused of receiving funds from Brazilian builder Odebrecht, now known as Novonor, in his successful 2011 election campaign.

Humala’s wife, Nadine Heredia, was also sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Peru’s foreign ministry said that following the verdict Heredia entered the Brazilian embassy in Lima to request asylum.

According to one of Humala’s lawyers in Brazil, Marco Aurelio de Carvalho, Heredia has cancer and had previously requested permission to travel to Brazil for treatment, but the request was declined.

In talks with the Peruvian government, Brazil is negotiating a safe conduct path that would allow Heredia to leave Peru and travel to Brazil, a Brazilian government source said.

The source declined to be named as the ongoing talks are confidential.

Humala, a retired military officer who led the Andean nation from 2011 to 2016, will likely carry out his sentence on a police base built specially to house Peru’s jailed leaders.

Former presidents Alejandro Toledo and Pedro Castillo are currently jailed at the site, while Alberto Fujimori stayed there until his release in 2023.

During his trial, which lasted three years after an investigation which kicked off in 2016, Humala decried the charges as political persecution.

Prosecutors alleged Humala received the illicit funds in his 2011 campaign against Keiko Fujimori – the other former president’s daughter – through Humala’s Nationalist Party.

His imprisonment will be effective immediately, even if he appeals the conviction. The court is expected to continue reading out the full sentencing over the next several days.

Humala’s lawyer, Wilfredo Pedraza, called the sentence “excessive,” saying prosecutors failed to prove the illegal origin of the funds. He said the defense plans to appeal once the final ruling is issued on April 29.

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