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By Marco Aquino
LIMA (Reuters) -A Peruvian court on Tuesday sentenced ex-President Ollanta Humala to 15 years in prison for receiving illicit campaign funds from a Brazilian construction firm, making him the nation's latest former leader to head behind bars.
Humala and his wife were accused of receiving funds from Brazilian builder Odebrecht, now known as Novonor, in his successful 2011 election campaign.
Humala's wife, Nadine Heredia, was also sentenced to 15 years in prison on Tuesday.
Peru's foreign ministry said that following the verdict Heredia entered the Brazilian embassy in Lima to request asylum.
According to one of Humala's lawyers in Brazil, Marco Aurelio de Carvalho, Heredia has cancer and had previously requested permission to travel to Brazil for treatment, but the request was declined.
Following the verdict, Peru's Foreign Ministry said Heredia entered the Brazilian embassy in Lima to request diplomatic asylum, which was granted for her and her youngest son.
The Peruvian government also said it would provide safe-passage and guarantees for their transfer.
Humala, a retired military officer who led the Andean nation from 2011 to 2016, will likely carry out his sentence on a police base built specially to house Peru's jailed leaders.
Former presidents Alejandro Toledo and Pedro Castillo are currently jailed at the site, while Alberto Fujimori stayed there until his release in 2023.
During his trial, which lasted three years after an investigation which kicked off in 2016, Humala decried the charges as political persecution.
Prosecutors alleged Humala received the illicit funds in his 2011 campaign against Keiko Fujimori - the other former president's daughter - through Humala's Nationalist Party.
His imprisonment will be effective immediately, even if he appeals the conviction. The court is expected to continue reading out the full sentencing over the next several days.
Humala's lawyer, Wilfredo Pedraza, called the sentence "excessive," saying prosecutors failed to prove the illegal origin of the funds. He said the defense plans to appeal once the final ruling is issued on April 29.
LATEST 'LAVA JATO' CONVICTION
A one-time construction colossus, Odebrecht has admitted that it doled out bribes to governments across Latin America to help build its vast empire. It changed its name to Novonor in 2020 and is currently undergoing bankruptcy proceedings.
Humala is Peru's second former president to be jailed and the fourth to be implicated for his role in the sweeping graft case known as "Lava Jato."
In 2019, former President Alan Garcia killed himself by gunshot wound as police descended on his home to arrest him for alleged corruption related to the firm.
The year before, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was forced to step down after just two years in office. Meanwhile, Toledo was sentenced to two decades in prison last year after receiving $35 million in bribes in exchange for public works contracts.
Former Odebrecht executives have said in Peruvian court that the firm had financed nearly all presidential candidates in the country for a nearly 30-year period.
(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Additional reporting by Lisansdra Paraguassu in Brasilia, Writing by Kylie Madry and Natalia Siniawski; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Aida Pelaez-Fernandez, Alistair Bell and Sonali Paul)
