Peru’s ex-president Humala released after conviction overturned

What the report says

Former Peruvian President Ollanta Humala was released from prison after Peru’s Constitutional Court overturned his 15-year sentence in a money-laundering case, Al Jazeera reported on Aug. 1, 2026. The ruling covered a case tied to the wider Odebrecht corruption scandal, and Humala had been held at a special detention facility in eastern Lima that houses several former Peruvian leaders.

According to the report, Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, were convicted last year of receiving illegal campaign contributions from Odebrecht, now known as Novonor, and from the Venezuelan government in two presidential bids. Heredia later received asylum in Brazil. The court said the criminal proceedings should be declared null and void, and it found merit in Humala’s habeas corpus petition, which argued that he had been imprisoned for conduct that was not legally defined as money laundering when the donations were received.

Humala, a former army officer who governed Peru from 2011 to 2016, was the first former Peruvian president to go on trial in the Odebrecht affair, which has also implicated other ex-leaders. More broadly, the scandal has affected politics across Latin America. As background, Odebrecht admitted in 2016 to paying large bribes to win infrastructure contracts across the region, including payments to Peruvian officials.