Brazil's ex-president Lula sentenced to prison after corruption conviction

[sandensea]

Former Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who rose from childhood poverty to become a two-term president, has been convicted on corruption charges in the first of five graft trials he faces.

He was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison, but will remain free on appeal.

The ruling marked a stunning fall for Lula, Brazil’s first working-class president, who left office six years ago with an 83% approval rating. The former union leader won global admiration for transformative social policies that helped reduce stinging inequality in Latin America’s biggest country.

Barack Obama once labeled him the most popular politician on Earth.

The verdict represented the highest-profile conviction yet in the sweeping corruption investigation that for over three years has rattled Brazil, revealing a sprawling system of graft at top levels of business and government, and throwing the country’s political system into disarray.

Judge Sergio Moro found Lula guilty of accepting 3.7m reais ($1.2m) worth of bribes from engineering firm OAS SA, the amount prosecutors said the company spent refurbishing a beach apartment for Lula in return for his help winning contracts with the state oil company Petroleo Brasileiro, or Petrobras.

Federal prosecutors have accused Lula, who first took office in 2003, of masterminding a long-running corruption scheme that was uncovered in a probe into kickbacks around Petrobras.

Lula’s legal team has previously said they would appeal any guilty ruling. They have continuously blasted the trial as a partisan witch-hunt, accusing Moro of being biased and out to get Lula for political reasons.

At: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/12/brazil-president-lula-convicted-corruption

[Judi Lynn]

1. We'll find out how much power the fascists have retained since the dictatorship, won't we?

The one thing they seem to fear worse than death is Lula!

Very highest hopes and wishes for this courageous, good man.

He's hated by monsters, torturers, murderers, thieves, and liars, beloved by the people who put character, goodness above power.

[Marksman_91]

2. You sure seem so fervent about arrests of political leaders when under a right-wing government...

but say peep when arbitrary ones are committed against leaders under a leftist regime...

[GatoGordo]

3. Indeed

Maduro and his ilk are only too eager to consolidate their dictatorial powers by abolishing the last vestiges of democracy in Venezuela, but not a peep, because Chavismo is based upon hard core Marxism... and the enemy of my enemy is my friend???