Overview
- Former president Ollanta Humala was released from a special detention facility on Friday after the Constitutional Court annulled his 15-year sentence tied to illicit campaign contributions.
- The court published its decision on Thursday, saying the payments prosecutors called illicit did not legally amount to money laundering when they were received.
- Humala was convicted last year for receiving funds linked to Brazilian builder Odebrecht and to the Venezuelan government during his 2011 campaign; Odebrecht has admitted paying at least $29 million to Peruvian officials.
- His wife, Nadine Heredia, who was also convicted in the same cases, has been granted asylum in Brazil and remains there, and prosecutors had not immediately commented on the annulment and release.
- The ruling follows similar Constitutional Court decisions that have overturned other high-profile graft prosecutions, raising questions about how courts will now separate unlawful campaign financing from criminal money laundering and what that will mean for Peru’s broader Odebrecht investigations.