Supporters of Brazil's Imprisoned Former President Vow to Protest 'In Perpetuity'.
| Autor | Scruggs, Gregory |
Brazil's former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2011), once called the most popular politician on Earth, has begun serving a prison sentence for a bribery conviction. While the federal judicial system argues that justice was served, da Silva's defenders accuse the government of detaining a political prisoner and weakening Brazilian democracy.
Crusading federal judge Sergio Moro ordered da Silva, popularly known as Lula, to turn himself in to the federal police on April 6, capping the highest-profile conviction to date in the wide-ranging Operation Car Wash corruption investigation (NotiSur, Jan. 13, 2017). Judges convicted da Silva in July 2017, but he was free on an appeal, which he lost in January (NotiSur, July 28, 2017).
Da Silva, a former steelworker, initially defied the order as hundreds of supporters surrounded the national steelworkers' union headquarters in Sao Bernardo do Campo, a municipality on the outskirts of Sao Paulo. He held off in order to attend Saturday mass at the union hall in honor of his late wife. After an overnight standoff at the building, da Silva voluntarily surrendered to the federal police on April 7. He is now serving at least 12 years and one month in a minimum-security prison in Curitiba, the headquarters for the corruption investigation. As president, he inaugurated the facility in 2007.
The downfall
Da Silva's journey to a 161-square-foot cell with a bed, dresser, desk, and bathroom is the culmination of a protracted legal battle. Prosecutors accused da Silva of taking a US$755,000 bribe from construction giant OAS in the form of renovations to an oceanfront apartment.
While relatively small, the kickback was part of a much larger corruption scheme to benefit da Silva's Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers Party, PT) amounting in the tens of millions of dollars. Da Silva is the defendant in at least seven other cases, which criminologists believe could elongate the 72-year-old's sentence to at least 36 years. The four-year-old probe has resulted in the convictions of 120 people and billions of dollars in restitution payments. High-ranking politicians, including the former governor of Rio de Janeiro, and members of the business elite are serving jail time.
Da Silva was convicted in July 2017. He appealed to a three-judge panel, which ruled against him on Jan. 24 at a courtroom in Porto Alegre. Outside the courthouse, thousands of protesters gathered, while the military secured the city.
The denied...
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