Lula allowed to leave prison for funeral

In January, when former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s brother died from cancer, the once exceedingly popular leader wanted the chance to leave prison to go to the funeral.

The embattled former president was jailed last year on corruption charges after serving as president from 2003 to 2011, and lower courts in Brazil argued that his attending the funeral could prompt security concerns.

The Supreme Court later said he could see his brother’s body under specific circumstances to avoid public access, but it was too late to attend the funeral and Lula declined.

Now, just weeks later, Lula was granted brief leave from prison — this time to attend the burial of his 7year-old grandson Arthur, who died from meningitis this week.

He left prison at 7 a.m. Saturday, and photos showed him waving to a crowd of people holding up their phones as he arrived at the Jardim da Colina cemetery for the funeral.

Prosecutor arrested

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — A Colombian prosecutor assigned to investigate the country’s largest former rebel group was arrested and accused of accepting a bribe in the case of a former rebel commander wanted in the United States, the authorities said Friday.

The prosecutor, Carlos J. Bermeo, had been assigned to a special court established to try cases of war crimes from the five-decade conflict between the government and rebels, which left at least 220,000 people dead and ended in a 2016 peace deal signed with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

But Mr. Bermeo, according to prosecutors, accepted money to stymie an extradition case involving a former member of the FARC, Jesús Santrich, who was arrested last year on charges that he had continued trafficking drugs after the group laid down its arms and given up its illegal activities.

The Colombian attorney general’s office said it arrested Mr. Bermeo and four others at two hotels in Bogotá the moment they were about to receive a payment of $500,000.

The arrest delivered a new blow to implementing the contentious peace deal, whose critics include President Iván Duque.

Mr. Duque campaigned against the accords before he took the presidency and has been particularly critical of the special court, which he has said would be too lenient toward former rebels.

The court is known in Colombia by its acronym, JEP, and on Friday the hashtag #JEPAccomplicesOfFARC began trending.

Fraud scheme sentence

HARRISBURG — A man holding dual citizenship in the United States and Nigeria was sentenced Wednesday for his role in an extensive, international fraud scheme.

Prince Edosa, 54, formerly of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Nigeria, pleaded guilty to counts of conspiracy and mail fraud charges in May 2017. Edosa had been indicted along with nine codefendants in January, 2013 to multiple counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.

Starting sometime time around 2002, “mass marketers” based in both the U.S. and internationally began scamming victims by way of bogus sweepstakes winnings, advance fee and internet purchase schemes that defrauded hundreds of consumers across the U.S., including victims from Monroe County.