Former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo reappeared on Friday in a room built exclusively to judge high dignitaries to testify in a trial for allegedly having received several million dollars from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.
Toledo, who governed Peru from 2001 to 2006 with the promise of ending the corruption networks of the government of Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), He is accused of receiving 30 million dollars from Odebrecht in exchange for awarding the construction of a section of a highway that connected the country with Brazil.
This is the first time that Toledo is seen in person by the press after his arrival in Peru since he was extradited from the United States in April 2023. All court sessions from that date until Friday had been held virtually.
The prosecution has requested 20 years in prison for Toledo for the crimes of collusion and money laundering. The former president denies all accusations.
Toledo, 78, appeared dressed in a green jacket, the same one he wore when he arrived in Lima extradited from the United States. “I’m not a business person, I’m an academic,” he said, showing two of the nearly 20 books he claims to have written.
The economist who graduated from the American University of San Francisco recalled his childhood as one of the 16 children of a bricklayer, but during the interrogation the former president provided little useful information.
The courtroom is built a short distance from the prison where since 2007 former presidents investigated or convicted of various crimes, especially corruption, have been imprisoned.
It has rooms for magistrates, witnesses and even one for former presidents to wait before being called to the stand. There is also a room for prosecutors to question their defendants – on days other than the hearings – and spaces for the public and the press.
The bribery scandal admitted by the construction company Odebrecht in 2016 caused an earthquake in the political class that governed Peru for the last two decades. Toledo is one of four former presidents investigated and prosecuted for cases linked to the Brazilian construction company.
The other former presidents implicated in the Odebrecht case are Ollanta Humala (2011-2016) and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-2018).
The most tragic case was that of former president Alan García (2006-2011), who committed suicide in 2019 minutes before the police were going to preliminarily detain him for 10 days while he was being investigated for a bribe from the Brazilian company.
Toledo’s interrogation is the last before the judges take the necessary time to issue their sentence.
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