El Salvador's former president Saca released after serving 10-year corruption sentence

Former El Salvador president Elias Antonio Saca has been released after serving a 10-year prison term for corruption. On Thursday he arrived at court to formally report his release. He had confessed to diverting and laundering more than 300 million dollars from public funds during his presidency (2004-2009) and accepted a plea bargain.

Saca's lawyer, Mario Machado, said the former president had served his sentence in full without receiving early-release benefits.

Saca, 61, is a businessman and radio broadcaster who served as president as part of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA).

Saca was first arrested during his son's wedding in 2016. In September 2018 he was sentenced to five years for embezzlement and another five years for money laundering.

The plea bargain allowed Saca to avoid a potential 30-year prison sentence, in return for confessing to the offences.

In 2019, Saca was also found guilty of offering 10,000 dollars to a court employee to obtain information about a case against him, though a judge determined that sentence to be part of his existing 10-year term.

During the initial trial, prosecutors said Saca appropriated funds from the state budget for himself and others, including taking more than 7 million dollars for his former party.

Saca was also ordered to repay 260 million dollars to the state.

Saca is one of four Salvadoran presidents who have faced corruption charges, including his successor Mauricio Funes, who escaped to Nicaragua in September 2016 and died there in 2025.