Top court rules Lula can be jailed
Brazil’s former President ahead in the polls but loses battle to stay out of prison
Brazil’s Supreme Court has ruled that former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva must start serving a 12-year prison sentence for taking bribes, denying his plea to remain free until he has exhausted all possible appeals.
The 6-5 decision was a blow for the country’s most popular politician, known simply as Lula, who is fighting to save his political career in the face of six additional corruption cases. The case has sharply divided the country, cast a shadow over this year’s presidential election and stirred rumblings in the army. He leads all preference polls for the election.
Within minutes of the decision, da Silva’s Workers’ Party, which held Brazil’s presidency from 2003 to 2016, put out a tweet that foreshadowed the struggles to come.
“The Brazilian people have the right to vote for Lula, the candidate of hope,” it read. “The Workers’ Party will defend this candidacy on the streets and in every court until the last consequences.”
The court’s debate underscored how fraught the matter is at a time of high tension and angst in Brazil, which is struggling to emerge from a crippling recession and is four years into a major corruption scandal that has ensnared much of the country’s elite, including da Silva.
“The constitution secures individual rights, which are fundamental to democracy, but it also assures the exercise of criminal law,” said Chief Justice Carmen Lucia, who cast the deciding vote.
Da Silva was President from 2003 to 2010, but he has become a polarising figure amid the “Car Wash” corruption scandal that has roiled Brazil the last several years and made average citizens furious with the political class.
He was convicted in July of helping a construction company get sweetheart contracts in exchange for the promise of a beachfront apartment. He denies any wrongdoing in that case or in several other corruption cases that have yet to be tried.