Former President Ollanta Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, were sentenced on Tuesday to 15 years in prison for money laundering. Brazil granted her diplomatic asylum, officials said.

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.

Peru's former president, Ollanta Humala, has been found guilty of money laundering and sentenced to 15 years in prison. A court in the capital, Lima, said he had accepted illegal funds from the Venezuelan president at the time, Hugo Chávez, and from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht to bankroll his election campaigns in 2006 and 2011.