Peru’s Constitutional Court ordered the release of former President Ollanta Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia. They were imprisoned months ago pending a trial on money laundering allegations.
Bloomberg News informed that the court ruled in a 4-3 vote to grant the ex-presidential couple the habeas corpus request. This led to their immediate release.
“Humala, who left office in July 2016, and his wife were jailed last July after prosecutors alleged they laundered money during two election campaigns, including a $3 million donation from disgraced Brazilian builder Odebrecht SA. The couple haven’t been formally charged and deny any wrongdoing.”, Bloomberg explains.
Former Odebrecht executive in Peru Jorge Barata told the Peruvian prosecution earlier this year that he delivered $3 million US dollars to Ollanta Humala’s 2011 presidential campaign, by order of his then boss, Marcelo Odebrecht, former CEO of Odebrecht.
Nevertheless, Humala has always denied these allegations and says that “he and his wife never posed a flight risk”, as you can read in Bloomberg News.
Humala’s lawyer, Cesar Nakazaki said that this decision ends the “abuse of preventive detention that exists in the Peruvian justice system today”.
(Source)
(Cover Photo Wikimedia Commons)
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Constitutional Court Votes Today “Habeas Corpus” Of Ollanta Humala And Nadine Heredia
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