Tuesday, October 23, 2024 - A court in Peru has sentenced former President Alejandro Toledo to 20 years and six months in prison after finding him guilty of corruption and money laundering.
Prosecutors accused Toledo, who served as president from
2001 to 2006, of accepting $35 million in bribes from the Brazilian
construction company Odebrecht in exchange for awarding them a contract to
build a highway in southern Peru.
Toledo, 78, was arrested in California five years ago, where
he had been living and working for many years. He was extradited to Peru in
2023 to face charges. Odebrecht, now renamed Novonor, previously admitted to
paying millions in bribes to officials across Latin America and the U.S. to
secure lucrative government contracts.
During the sentencing, Judge Inés Rojas highlighted that
Toledo had violated the trust placed in him by the Peruvian people, who
expected him to manage the nation’s finances responsibly. Instead, she said, he
defrauded the state. The former president denied the charges throughout the
trial and was seen smirking and laughing during the court proceedings.
Toledo is not the only former Peruvian leader implicated in
the Odebrecht scandal. In 2019, former president Alan García took his own life
when police arrived to arrest him over similar bribery charges. Two other
former presidents, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and Ollanta Humala, are also under
investigation in connection with the case.
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