The former president of Peru Alejandro Toledo is sentenced to 20 years in prison for corruption

A Peruvian court this Monday sentenced ex-president Alejandro Toledo to more than 20 years in prison for accepting multimillion-dollar bribes from scandal-hit Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht.

The High Court accepted the prison sentence recommended by the prosecution, it announced at a hearing attended by the 78-year-old, who led the South American nation from 2001 to 2006.

Toledo, an American-educated economist with a PhD from Stanford University, has maintained his innocence and pleaded for leniency, saying he has cancer and heart problems.

“I want to go to a private clinic. Please let me get better or die at home,” he told a hearing last week.

Toledo appeared calm in court as he was found guilty of collusion and money laundering for receiving $35 million from Odebrecht.