Brazil’s Supreme Court rejects ex-president Lula’s bid to avoid 12-year prison sentence in ‘Car Wash’ scandal
The decision by the Supreme Federal Tribunal means that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will likely soon be forced to begin serving his sentence for corruption
Brazil’s Supreme Court on Thursday rejected former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s bid to delay a 12 year prison sentence for corruption in a ruling that could upend presidential elections in Latin America’s biggest country.
The 6-5 ruling means that Lula – who was Brazil’s most popular leader on record and is the front runner ahead of the October 7 polls – could be arrested within days.
The 11 judges deliberated for more than 10 hours from Wednesday into Thursday on Lula’s request to avoid going to prison while he mounts fresh appeals. At 5-5, it was court president Carmen Lucia who cast the tiebreaking vote, saying that postponing serving of sentences “could lead to impunity.”
Broadcast live on television, the drama left Brazilians as divided as the judges themselves, and raised questions over the state of the country’s democracy after the top army general appeared to urge prison for the 72-year-old founder of the leftist Workers’ Party.
On the right, Lula is considered the face of corruption sweeping the country’s political elite. His imprisonment has long been the goal of prosecutors running Brazil’s “Car Wash” anti-graft investigation and he is now their biggest scalp.
Leftists, however, remember Lula’s 2003-2010 rule as a time when Brazil used its wealth to lift tens of millions of people out of poverty.