Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo has been sentenced to 20 years and six months in prison for taking bribes from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.
The 78-year-old, who governed Peru from 2001 to 2006, was convicted of accepting $35 million in exchange for awarding Odebrecht a contract to build a road connecting Peru’s southern coast to Brazil’s Amazon region.
This marks Peru’s first high-profile conviction related to the continent-wide Lava Jato corruption scandal, which implicated officials across Latin America. Odebrecht, now known as Novonor, admitted in 2016 to bribing officials in 12 countries to secure public contracts.
Toledo, who denied the charges of money laundering and collusion throughout the trial, has been battling cancer and pleaded last week to serve his sentence at home, asking, “Please let me heal or die at home.”
He is currently detained in a Lima prison, where Toledo has been detained since last year. Former President Pedro Castillo is also being held there as he faces allegations of “rebellion” after trying to dissolve Congress in 2022.
Two other ex-presidents, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and Ollanta Humala, are also being investigated in the Odebrecht case.
Toledo’s conviction relied on testimonies from former Odebrecht executive Jorge Barata and Toledo’s ex-collaborator, Josef Maiman, who confirmed the bribes. The road project began under Toledo’s administration but was completed under his successors.