Former Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina was placed under house arrest this week after serving eight years in prison since his 2015 corruption conviction, his lawyer said Thursday.

Mr Peres, a former general, ruled the Central American state from 2012 to 2015, when he was forced to resign four months before the end of his term amid mass protests over a corruption scandal.

The former president was released from prison last Wednesday night, his lawyer Cesar Calderon told Reuters news agency. He is “happy to be reunited with his family after eight years,” commented the criminologist.

In order to be placed under house arrest, Mr. Peres was required to pay nearly 35,000 euros and mortgage two properties worth 1.1 million euros as collateral, according to Mr. Calderon.

In late 2022, the former president was sentenced to serve 16 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy and racketeering and customs fraud. Together with his former vice-president Roxana Valdetti — who remains in prison — the former head of state was accused of embezzling 3.2 million euros from state coffers through customs fraud.

The case, known in Guatemala as La Linea, was initially investigated by the UN-backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), which was later expelled from the country.

The former president was sentenced last year to another eight years in prison for money laundering and fraud in a separate trial.

Under Guatemalan law, Mr. Peres was allowed to be placed under house arrest after serving half his sentence with good behavior and paying a fine and bail.