Former Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra has been handed a 14-year jail term after he was found guilty of receiving bribes from the country’s leading construction firms during his reign as a regional governor between 2011 and 2014.
He becomes the third head of state to receive a prison sentence; earlier, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and former French President Nicolas Sarkozy were sentenced to prison, one for a “coup in Brazil” and the other for corruption charges linking Sarkozy to former Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi.
Vizcarra, like Sarkozy and Bolsonaro, denies the charges against him and has become the fifth president of Peru to be sent to prison. The Peruvian court has also sentenced former presidents Pedro Castillo (2021-2022), Ollanta Humala (2011-2016), and Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006); all three are currently behind bars at a special penitentiary for former leaders in Lima.
The 62-year-old former leader was handed the term after he was found guilty of corruption charges. Prosecutors said he had received around $640,000 (€552,000) in exchange for doing favours to companies that were vying for public works contracts.
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During his presidency from 2018 to 2020, he himself championed the fight against corruption.
Meanwhile, the former president has decried his sentence as retribution for standing up to influential right-wing political groups in Congress. "This is not justice; it is revenge," Vizcarra said on social media. "But they will not break me." The court on Wednesday ordered immediate imprisonment and a nine-year ban from public office. Vizcarra is likely to appeal against the ruling in the coming days.
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