Former President Arnoldo Aleman, who returned from exile imposed by the leftist Sandinistas to rebuild Nicaragua's ruling party, was convicted on corruption charges Sunday and sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment and fined US$10 million.
The sentence could put to an end the former president's grip over the ruling Constitutionalist Liberal Party, where Aleman's authority has endured despite charges he illegally diverted some US$100 million in government funds to his party's election campaigns while in the presidential office.
Judge Juana Mendez cited the crimes of fraud, misappropriation of public funds, embezzlement, criminal association and electoral violations endangering the state in her sentencing of Aleman, who was president from 1997 to January last year.
It is the first time a former president has been convicted in Nicaragua.
In Sunday's decision, Mendez also stripped Aleman of his ability to serve in Nicaragua's legislature, where he led the largest voting bloc as a senator upon leaving office.
The judge described how Aleman and officials high in his administration had formed anonymous societies in Panama, through which public funds were laundered and mixed with political donations. Mendez also described how Aleman took money from the treasury to buy a helicopter for US$1.8 million and later rented it to a government agency.
"The money was used for the benefit of Aleman and his family and electoral campaigns of the Liberal Constitutional Party," Mendez said.
Also on Sunday, Mendez found former tax collector Byron Jerez innocent of money-laundering charges. In a separate trial, Jerez was convicted June 6 of fraud against the state.
On his way to becoming president, Aleman rebuilt and renamed the Liberal Party after it was damaged by its association with the Somoza family dictatorship, which was overthrown by Sandinista rebels in 1979.
Aleman, 57, has been diagnosed with diabetes, hypertension and heart problems and is likely to serve his sentence at his ranch 28km south of Managua. The penitentiary system will establish the conditions of his confinement in coordination with police.
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