Ex-brazilian president Lula sentenced to prison over bribery charges

FORMER Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio 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 such trials he faces.

He was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison yesterday 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 per cent approval rating. The former union leader won global admiration for transformative social policies that helped reduce inequality in Latin America’s biggest country. Former US President Barack Obama once called him the most popular politician on Earth.

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

Judge Sérgio Moro found Lula guilty of accepting 3.7 million reais (£894,000) 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 state oil company Petróleo Brasileiro (Petrobras).

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

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

Lula’s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Senator Gleisi Hoffmann, the head of the Workers’ Party, criticised the ruling, saying Lula was convicted to prevent him from running for the presidency next year. She said that the party would protest against the decision and was confident the ruling would be overturned on appeal.

Lula remains a popular figure among many Brazilian voters, according to recent polls, and has said he wants to run again for the top office next year. However, he would be barred from office if his guilty verdict is upheld by an appeals court, which is expected to take at least eight months to reach a verdict.