World

Peru's Humala Leaves Prison After Constitutional Court Overturns Conviction

Is this true justice or does it undermine accountability for real crimes?

AUG 1·Updated AUG 24

Peru's Humala Leaves Prison After Constitutional Court Overturns Conviction

Story

Above: Ollanta Humala leaves Barbadillo prison in Lima on July 31, 2026. Image credit: Renato Pajuelo/AFP/Getty Images

The Facts

Former Peruvian President Ollanta Humala left Barbadillo Prison in Lima on Friday after the country's Constitutional Court annulled a 15-year money laundering sentence that he had been serving since last year.
Andina
Reuters
Epicentro TV on X
The court in the Andean country granted habeas corpus for Humala in a 5-2 ruling published on Thursday, voiding the entire criminal case due to stated due-process violations and ordering prosecutors to close it.
Andina
El Comercio
La República
The former president was convicted along with his wife, Nadine Heredia, in April 2025 of receiving $200,000 in illegal contributions from late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez to fund his unsuccessful 2006 presidential campaign and $3 million from Odebrecht for his campaigns in 2006 and 2011.
Andina
BBC News
The Associated Press
The Constitutional Court said that the acts for which he was convicted hadn't been defined as a criminal offense at the time they allegedly took place, reasserting that retroactive criminal legislation violates the constitution. The same legal reasoning was used last year to dismiss proceedings against current President Keiko Fujimori.
El Comercio
La República
Reuters
Shortly after his presidential term finished in 2016, Humala became the first of four former Peruvian presidents to be investigated in connection with the Brazilian construction giant that admitted to spending $788 million in bribes to foreign officials across Latin America.
Al Jazeera
BBC News
Reuters
Former First Lady Heredia, who had sought asylum at the Brazilian Embassy in Lima and was granted safe-conduct to travel to Brazil, is now expected to return to Peru in the coming days, pending a formal dismissal of the case against her.
Al Jazeera
Andina
BBC News
Expreso Perú

Sources Split

LEFT

CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

CENTER

PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

The Constitutional Court was right to toss out Ollanta Humala's conviction, as prosecutors violated basic principles of legality and specificity in criminal law. The Lava Jato team used selective persecution to keep political figures in the headlines while Odebrecht's financial obligations to the Peruvian state quietly faded into the background.

Willax

Narrative B

The Constitutional Court that freed Humala is a tribunal hand-picked through a corrupt political arrangement, and its ruling wiped out a legitimate money laundering conviction that prior magistrates had firmly supported. Letting a former president walk free on procedural grounds while his underlying crimes go unanswered makes a mockery of accountability in Peru.