Humala, 59, is a former army lieutenant colonel who ruled Peru between 2011 and 2016, whom the prosecution accuses of money laundering for receiving illegal contributions of three million dollars for the campaign that brought him to power.
The hearing that opens the process is scheduled for 09:00 (10 Argentine time), according to the summons issued by the Judiciary.
The trial will be virtual due to the biosecurity restrictions in closed spaces in force in Peru, one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic with some 210,000 deaths and 3.5 million Covid-19 infections.
The prosecution requested 20 years in prison for Humala and 26 years for his wife for “concealment of real estate purchases with Odebrecht money.”
Judge Nayko Coronado, of the Third National Collegiate Criminal Court, presides over the court of three magistrates that will decide the fate of the Humala couple and nine other defendants, including the brother and mother of the former first lady.
The accusation presented in May 2019 by prosecutor Germán Juárez includes a request for the Peruvian Nationalist Party to be dissolved de Humala, accused of being a gang that received illegal money to finance the 2011 and 2006 campaigns.
The former president and his wife, 45, already spent nine months in preventive detention in 2017-2018 for this case.
This is the first formal accusation against a former Peruvian president who comes to trial for the Odebrecht scandal, a company that he recognized in 2016 having doled out tens of millions of dollars in Peru in bribes and illegal campaign donations since the beginning of the 21st century.
Humala is the first of a total of four presidents to go to trial for the Odebrecht corruption plot in Peru, in a period that covers the last two decades.
The Peruvian prosecutor presented to the court a list of 285 witnesses to question in this case.
Among the witnesses cited are leaders of the Brazilian Odebrecht such as Marcelo Odebrecht, Luiz Mameri and Jorge Barata, former head of the company in Peru, among others.
Humala tried to return to the presidency in the 2021 elections, but he got just 1.3% of the vote and his party did not win any seats in parliament.
The other three ex-governors splashed by Odebrecht are Peter Paul Kuczynski (2016-2018), Allan Garcia (2006-2011 and who committed suicide before his arrest) and Alexander Toledo (2001-2006).
Former Odebrecht bosses confessed to Peruvian prosecutors to have illegally distributed millions of dollars among politicians. That includes the opposition leader Keiko Fujimoriwhose trial could begin before the end of the year.
Source: Ambito
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