El Salvador frees former president Saca after decade of prison time

Elias Antonio Saca walked out of an El Salvadoran prison on Thursday after serving a full 10-year sentence for corruption.

The 61-year-old former head of state arrived at court to formally report his release. He had previously agreed to a plea deal in which he confessed to diverting and laundering more than $300 million from public coffers during his 2004 to 2009 administration.

His lawyer, Mario Machado, stated that Saca served his sentence in full without receiving any early-release benefits.

Saca was initially arrested in 2016 while attending his son’s wedding. In September 2018, a court sentenced him to five years for embezzlement and five additional years for money laundering. That plea bargain prevented a potential 30-year prison term.

In 2019, a judge found Saca guilty of offering $10,000 to a court employee to obtain case details, but ruled that this second sentence was part of his existing 10-year term. Prosecutors originally alleged that Saca appropriated state budget funds for himself and others, including taking more than $7 million for his former party, the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA).

Saca is also ordered to repay $260 million to the state. He is one of four Salvadoran presidents to face corruption charges. His successor, Mauricio Funes, fled to Nicaragua in September 2016 and died there in 2025.