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Ex-Peru President sentenced to 20 years on corruption charges.

Toledo was convicted of taking US$35 million in bribes from construction firm

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by Allan Kisia

World13 November 2024 - 19:22
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In Summary


  • Odebrecht-related scandals have led to the jailing of officials in Peru, Panama, and Ecuador.
  • Toledo served in office from 2001 to 2006 denied charges of money laundering and collusion levelled against him by prosecutors

Former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo

Former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo has been sentenced to serve more than 20 years in prison on corruption charges.

Toledo was convicted of taking $35 million in bribes from the Brazilian construction firm in exchange for a freeway construction contract.

His sentencing followed years of legal proceedings that began with his arrest in California in 2019. He was extradited to Peru in 2022.

“I want to go to a private clinic. I ask you please to let me get better or die at home,” Toledo said at a hearing last week.

The 78-year-old former president told the court he had cancer.

The contract awarded Odebrecht was part of a sprawling spiderweb of scandal that has brought down officials at the highest levels of government in countries across the continent and beyond.

Odebrecht-related scandals have led to the jailing of officials in Peru, Panama, and Ecuador.

Toledo served in office from 2001 to 2006 and denied charges of money laundering and collusion levelled against him by prosecutors in the year-long trial.

He was first arrested in the United States in 2019 after Peru requested his extradition, and was sent back there in 2022 after years of legal debate over his potential extradition.

Toledo will serve his sentence in a prison on the outskirts of the Peruvian capital of Lima, specially constructed to house former presidents.

Two more ex-presidents, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and Ollanta Humala, are under investigation in similar cases related to Odebrecht.

“The trial determined that Toledo Manrique colluded with interested parties such as Odebrecht so that, through a bribe of $35 million, the Brazilian company was awarded the contract for the construction of sections 2 and 3 of the Interoceanic Highway, causing harm to the State”, a press release from the judiciary of Peru said.

Authorities noted that Toledo’s sentence was reached after 175 hearings, statements from more than 100 witnesses, and the presentation of swathes of documentary evidence.

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