The Federal Supreme Court (TSF) of Brazil has rejected the request of habeas corpus (i.e. the granting of physical freedom, after the sentence suffered) presented by former president Lula Da Silva, who can therefore now be imprisoned to serve the 12-year sentence imposed on him for corruption and money laundering. As expected by observers, the decision was taken with a narrow majority: 6 votes against 5.
Formally, it was the opinion of the president of the TSF, Carmen Lucia – the last to vote – that signaled the defeat of the precautionary measure requested by Lula, but it was the negative vote of another magistrate – Rosa Weber – who it has extinguished the enthusiasm of the sympathizers of the former president during the long hearing, which lasted more than ten hours.
The former president of Brazil, who he also wanted to run for the next presidential elections in the fall and precisely for this reason he had asked to remain out of prison until October, he could therefore go to prison as early as today: a technical passage from the court of Porto Alegre is now necessary to make the sentence enforceable and the consequent arrest warrant from the public prosecutor's office state of Parana.
Lula, who is 72 and headed the South American country from 2003 to 2011, was sentenced in July last year for corruption and money laundering in connection with the refurbishment of a penthouse apartment which he intended to purchase. The works were paid for by a company that aspired to win contracts with the public oil giant Petrobras.
The case is linked, as is known, to the gigantic Lava Jeto scandal, which involved Petrobras and led to the arrest of dozens of politicians and entrepreneurs. The investigation also involved Lula's "dolphin", Dilma Rousseff, as well as the current president Michel Temer. The Porto Alegre Court of Appeal in January upheld the first instance sentence, increasing the prison sentence from nine years and six months to 12 years and one month.
