A Paraguayan appeals court cleared former President Luis Gonzalez Macchi of corruption Monday, three months after he was sentenced to six years for plotting to embezzle $16 million, a judge said.
Gonzalez Macchi, who led the poor South American country from 1999 to 2003, was convicted in June in relation to the illicit diversion of funds from two bankrupt private banks that had been taken over by the state.
But the appeals court ruled there was insufficient evidence linking the former president to the embezzlement.
Opposition parties, political analysts and even members of his former party say his government was Paraguay’s most corrupt since democracy was restored in 1989 after a long dictatorship.
Paraguay is notorious for corruption and its large black market.
A 2005 survey by anti-graft group Transparency International found more than 30 percent of Paraguayan households had paid a bribe in the past year.
