Peru’s ex-president Humala released after conviction overturned

Former Peruvian President Ollanta Humala has been released from prison following a Constitutional Court decision to nullify his conviction in a case stemming from the Odebrecht corruption scandal. Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, had been sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of money laundering for accepting illegal campaign contributions during two presidential campaigns.

The Constitutional Court's ruling, issued on July 15, declared the entire criminal proceedings against Humala null and void. The court determined that Humala's habeas corpus petition was valid because he had been convicted under a legal framework that did not classify the conduct in question as money laundering at the time the campaign contributions were received.

Humala, a former military officer who served as Peru's president from 2011 to 2016, was detained at a special facility in eastern Lima that holds several of Peru's imprisoned former leaders. His case marked the first trial of a former Peruvian president in connection with the Odebrecht scandal, which has implicated three other former presidents in the country.

The Odebrecht case represents one of Latin America's largest corruption investigations. In 2016, the Brazilian construction company agreed to pay $3.5 billion in penalties after admitting to distributing $788 million in bribes to secure infrastructure contracts across the region. Odebrecht specifically acknowledged paying at least $29 million in bribes to Peruvian officials between 2005 and 2014.