Peru: Ex-president Toledo sentenced to more than 20 years

COLOMBO (News 1st); A Peruvian court on Monday sentenced former president Alejandro Toledo to more than 20 years in prison after he was convicted of accepting millions of dollars in bribes from construction company Odebrecht.

The Superior Court accepted the prison term recommended by the prosecution, it announced at a hearing attended by Toledo, who was the Peruvian president from 2001 to 2006.

Brazilian construction company Odebrecht became synonymous with corruption in its home country and across Latin America, where it paid millions of dollars in bribes to government officials and others between 2001 and 2016. The company has since been renamed Novonor.

According to prosecutors, Toledo was convicted of taking $35 million (€32.2 million) in bribes from the Brazilian firm, in exchange for letting it win a contract to build a road that now connects Peru's southern coast with an Amazonian area in western Brazil.

Toledo has denied the money-laundering and collusion charges against him.

Monday's sentence was imposed by the National Superior Court of Specialized Criminal Justice in Lima, following years of legal tussles, including a debate over whether Toledo could be extradited from the United States ,where had been living for several years.

The ex-president was extradited from the US after he surrendered at a federal court building in California.