Peru’s former first lady seeks asylum in Brazilian Embassy as she and ex-President Humala sentenced to prison

By Mauricio Torres, Jimena De La Quintana, Ivonne Valdés and Michael Rios, CNN

(CNN) — Peru’s former First Lady Nadine Heredia requested asylum at the Brazilian Embassy in Lima on Tuesday, the same day she and her husband, former President Ollanta Humala, were sentenced to 15 years in prison on money laundering charges.

The embassy informed Peru that Heredia had arrived Tuesday morning, according to a statement from the Peruvian Foreign Ministry. It’s unclear if she entered the facility before or after the sentence was announced by the Peruvian Judiciary.

CNN has reached out to the Foreign Ministry and embassy for more information, and is also trying to contact Heredia’s lawyer.

The trial relates to alleged illicit contributions to Humala’s election campaigns in 2006 and 2011.

Prosecutors had alleged that Humala’s Nationalist Party received illicit contributions from the Venezuelan government and the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht to finance his campaigns.

Humala and his wife had previously denied any wrongdoing.

Humala was in attendance as a judge read out the verdict on Tuesday, three years after the trial began. Heredia did not attend.

Moments after the ruling was announced, the judiciary ordered Humala to start serving his sentence immediately and be sent to prison.

His lawyer, Wilfredo Pedraza, criticized the decision as unjustified and told CNN they would appeal.

“The panel has said that the illegality of the crimes can be verified along the way – that is inadmissible. Here, in oral trial and in sentencing, affirmations must be made, no longer presumptions,” he argued.

Prosecutors were seeking 20 years in prison for the former president and 26 years for the former first lady.

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