LIMA, Oct 22, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - A Peruvian court on Monday sentenced former president Alejandro Toledo to more than 20 years in prison for accepting multi-million-dollar bribes from scandal-hit Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht.

The Superior Court accepted the prison term 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, a US-trained economist with a doctorate from Stanford University, maintained he was innocent and asked for leniency, saying he has cancer and heart problems.

"I want to go to a private clinic. I ask you please to let me get better or die at home," he said at a hearing last week.

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

He took notes but did not speak at Monday's hearing, smiling nervously as the reading of the verdict made it clear that he had been convicted.

The court found that he had accepted bribes in exchange for tenders to build two sections of an international highway linking the Pacific coast of Peru and the Atlantic coast of Brazil.

Toledo's lawyer told reporters that he would appeal the sentence.

The ex-president was extradited last year from the United States, where he had been living for several years before surrendering at a federal court building in California.

Odebrecht, which has since changed its name to Novonor, has admitted to paying hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes throughout Latin America to secure huge public works contracts.

The so-called "Car Wash" scandal has seen dozens of politicians and business figures behind bars.

Toledo is one of several Peruvian presidents implicated in a massive investigation targeting the group, which acknowledged paying millions in bribes to Peruvian officials between 2005 and 2014.

Two-term leader Alan Garcia committed suicide in 2019 when police came to his house to arrest him.

In 2018, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski became the first Latin American president to resign over alleged connections to the Odebrecht case, which was not the first time graft allegations rocked Peruvian politics.

Alberto Fujimori, who led Peru from 1990 to 2000, left office when he became engulfed in a major corruption scandal and went into self-imposed exile in Japan.

He memorably faxed in his resignation but was arrested years later in Chile and sent back to Peru for trial.

Fujimori was released from prison on humanitarian grounds last December while serving a 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity.

He died in September aged 86 after a long battle with cancer.