BFF-08 Brazil high court to consider annulment of Lula convictions

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Brazil high court to consider annulment of Lula convictions

BRASILIA, March 13, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Brazil’s full Supreme Court will
consider the annulment of ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s corruption
convictions, after a judge Friday denied an appeal by prosecutors to reverse
the decision that cleared the way for his political comeback.

High court judge Edson Fachin wrote in his decision that it’s now up to the
panel of 11 justices to decide whether the quashing of the convictions should
be “upheld or not”.

Lawyers for the former president have five days to file their arguments
before the court takes up the case.

Lula, the popular but tarnished leftist who led Brazil through an economic
boom from 2003 to 2010, was jailed in 2018 on charges of taking bribes from
companies seeking juicy contracts at state oil giant Petrobras.

The cases sidelined him just as he was gearing up to seek a new
presidential term, in elections ultimately won by far-right President Jair
Bolsonaro.

Fachin’s initial ruling on Monday reinstated Lula’s right to run for office
— setting up a potential showdown with Bolsonaro in October 2022.

The cases against Lula, 75, grew out of “Operation Car Wash,” an
investigation that blew the lid off a massive corruption scheme in which top
politicians and business executives systematically siphoned billions of
dollars from Petrobras.

Fachin ruled the court in the southern state of Parana that handled the Car
Wash cases did not have jurisdiction for Lula’s charges because they were not
directly related to the Petrobras scheme.

He ordered the four cases — two convictions and two pending judgment —
transferred to another court in Brasilia.

Prosecutors asked the Supreme Court to at a minimum reinstate the two
convictions, arguing they were legally sound and that Lula was “named as the
ringleader” of the Petrobras scheme — an accusation they have struggled to
pin on him in court.

Lula, who denies wrongdoing, spent 18 months in jail before being freed in
2019 pending appeal.

BSS/AFP/SSS/0855 hrs