Rio de Janeiro: Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was almost sure to go to prison next week after a Supreme Court ruling likely doomed his plan to return to power in October elections, leaving Latin America’s biggest country in a divided, angry mood on Thursday.
Lawyers for the founder of Brazil’s leftist Workers’ Party can wait until Monday to file a final, purely technical appeal with the lower court that in January sentenced Lula to 12 years and one month for corruption.
The appeal would almost certainly be quickly rejected and Lula, once one of the world’s most popular politicians, would be ordered to start his sentence immediately.
Lula, who despite his legal problems leads easily in opinion polls ahead of the upcoming presidential election, had hoped the Supreme Court would grant him liberty while he appealed his conviction in higher courts.
But the Supreme Court ruled in a tense, nearly 11-hour session by 6-5 that because the 72-year-old has already lost a lower court appeal against his conviction, he must begin the sentence.
The ruling brought a tide of celebration on the right and among prosecutors supporting the epic “Car Wash” anti-graft probe, which has revealed high-level corruption throughout Brazilian business and politics over the last four years.
To them, Lula epitomises the corruption-riddled system and his conviction on charges of accepting a seaside apartment as a bribe is “Car Wash’s” biggest scalp by far.
But on the left, where Lula retains fervent backing, the Supreme Court ruling is seen as part of a right-wing coup meant to destroy the Workers’ Party and maintain the current, deeply unpopular elite in power. The Workers’ Party tweeted that “the Brazilian people have a right to vote for Lula” and promised to take its fight to “the streets... right to the bitter end.”
“A sad day for democracy and for Brazil,” Gleisi Hoffmann, who heads the party, said.
Lawyers for Lula described the ruling as “violating the personal human dignity and other fundamental rights” of Lula. — AFP
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
