Peru's ex-president Humala, wife to be released from prison

LIMA, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Peru's ex-president Ollanta Humala (2011-2016) and his wife Nadine Heredia are to be released from prison after the Constitutional Court (TC) on Thursday overturned an 18-month preventive detention order against the couple.

In a vote of four-to-three, the court accepted their lawyer's habeas corpus petition against preventive detention sentence handed down in July 2017.

"Friends, we did it! The TC ruled in favor of Ollanta Humala and Nadine Heredia's habeas corpus and they will be released," their lawyer, Cesar Nakazaki, announced via Twitter.

The two are being investigated for illicit enrichment, including accepting money from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht to fund Humala's 2011 presidential campaign.

Humala is at a national police holding facility some 7 kilometers east of the capital Lima, and Heredia is at the wing of a women's prison in the capital's southern district of Chorrillos.

In February 2017, the former representative of Odebrecht in Peru, Jorge Barata, told prosecutors he contributed 3 million U.S. dollars to Humala's campaign at the request of Brazil's Workers' Party. Odebrecht's former president, Marcelo Odebrecht, verified the allegation.

Humala and Heredia are expected to be released in the coming hours, but will continue to face charges.

Humala's successor, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, resigned shortly after taking office amid similar allegations of corruption. Enditem