Peru's former president Toledo has been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison by a court in Lima. He was accused of accepting millions in bribes.
Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo has been sentenced to 20 years and six months in prison for corruption in connection with a widespread money laundering scandal.
The court found Toledo guilty of accepting $35 million (about 32.4 million euros) in bribes from Brazilian construction group Odebrecht during his term in office from 2001 to 2006. In return, he is said to have given the company the contract to build a road between the southern coast of Peru and the Amazon region in western Brazil.
Corruption scandal about construction company
It is the first high-profile conviction in Peru in connection with what is arguably Brazil's largest corruption scandal. Odebrecht, now known as Novonor, has been at the center of a far-reaching scandal alongside the parastatal oil company Petrobras for years.
In 2017, the company was sentenced to billions in fines in Brazil for bribing government officials. In the same year, the ex-vice president of Ecuador, Jorge Glas, was also sentenced to six years in prison for corruption.
