Nadine Heredia, former First Lady of Peru, has officially requested asylum at the Brazilian Embassy in Lima, just hours after she and her husband, ex-President Ollanta Humala, were sentenced to 15 years in prison for money laundering.
Peru’s Foreign Ministry confirmed in a statement that Heredia arrived at the Brazilian Embassy on Tuesday morning. However, it’s unclear whether her entry took place before or after the Peruvian Judiciary announced the sentencing.
CNN is awaiting additional information from the Foreign Ministry and the Brazilian Embassy and has reached out to Heredia’s legal team for comment.
The convictions stem from a years-long investigation into illegal campaign contributions received during Humala’s presidential bids in 2006 and 2011. According to prosecutors, the couple’s Nationalist Party accepted illicit funds from both the Venezuelan government and the scandal-ridden Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht.
Both Humala and Heredia have consistently denied any wrongdoing.
Humala was present in court for the sentencing, nearly three years after the trial began. Upon hearing the verdict, a judge ordered his immediate imprisonment.
His defense attorney, Wilfredo Pedraza, called the decision “unjustified” and announced plans to appeal the ruling. Pedraza told CNN, “The panel claims that the illegality of the crimes can be verified along the way—this is inadmissible. Verdicts must be based on clear findings, not presumptions.”
Heredia did not attend the court hearing.
While both were sentenced to 15 years, prosecutors had initially pushed for 20 years for Humala and 26 years for Heredia, citing the severity of the alleged financial crimes and their impact on Peru’s political system.
The case is part of a broader Latin American corruption investigation tied to Odebrecht, which has implicated numerous high-profile politicians and business leaders across the region. Peru, in particular, has seen multiple former presidents entangled in the probe.
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