The Bolivian Supreme Court of Justice on Wednesday annulled the 10-year prison sentence handed down to former interim President Jeanine Anez in 2022 and ordered her immediate release.
According to the newspaper La Razon, the court’s president, Romer Saucedo, said the verdict against her was declared null and void because the underlying criminal law had been amended retrospectively.
According to Saucedo, the sentence was overturned based on “several arguments” and the vote of seven of the nine justices.
He explained that the decision was based on violations of due process found during Anez’s trial through ordinary legal channels.
The decision was said to be intended to guarantee the right to a fair trial. The court ordered that Anez, imprisoned for over four years, undergo a political trial as requested by her defense team.
Why was Anez convicted?
In June 2022, Anez was convicted for making unconstitutional decisions and breaching her duties as interim president.
Anez ascended to the presidency after the resignation of left-wing leader Evo Morales under pressure from the military and amid allegations of electoral fraud in 2019.
The political crisis led to mass protests, which resulted in 37 deaths.
Morales fled the country but was able to return after Luis Arce, the leading candidate of the left-wing MAS party, won the presidential election in October 2020.
In the 2025 presidential election, whose runoff was held in October, Senator Rodrigo Paz Pereira emerged victorious, ushering in a period of political upheaval in Bolivia.
Pereira, the candidate from the Christian Democratic Party, will be sworn in as president on Saturday, ending an era of left-wing governments under Morales and Arce that lasted nearly two decades.
Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru
