BRASILIA:
Brazil's Supreme Court early on Thursday rejected former president
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's plea to avoid prison while he appeals a corruption conviction, in a vote that likely ends his political career and deepens divisions in the country.
After nearly 11 hours of often heated debate, the justices of the
Supreme Federal Tribunal voted 6-5 to deny da Silva's preventative
habeas corpus request to stave off a 12-year jail sentence while he fights a conviction in a case that he argues was nothing more than a ploy to keep him off of
October's presidential ballot.
Despite the conviction and several other corruption charges pending against him, da Silva leads all preference polls for the election. The decision means he will likely be jailed soon, though probably not until at least next week thanks to various technicalities.
Within minutes of the decision, da Silva's Workers' Party, which held Brazil's presidency from 2003 to 2016, put out a tweet that foreshadowed the struggles to come. "The Brazilian people have the right to vote for Lula, the candidate of hope," it read. "The Workers' Party will defend this candidacy on the streets and in every court until the last consequences."
The court's debate underscored how fraught the matter is at a time of high tension and angst in Brazil, which is struggling to emerge from a crippling recession and is four years into a major corruption scandal that has ensnared much of the country's elite, including da Silva. "The constitution secures individual rights, which are fundamental to democracy, but it also assures the exercise of criminal law," said Chief Justice Carmen Lucia,.
The session reflected the debate happening across Brazil as millions tuned into the televised session. When the decision was levelled, fireworks and yells could be heard and seen in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, two of the nation's most important cities.
Da Silva was once wildly popular after his two terms as president from 2003 to 2010, but he has become a polarising figure amid the "Car Wash" corruption scandal that has roiled Brazil the last several years. Da Silva was convicted in July of helping a construction company get sweetheart contracts in exchange for the promise of a beachfront apartment. He denies any wrongdoing. An appeals court upheld the conviction in January, and the three reviewing magistrates even lengthened the sentence to 12 years and one month.
Technically, the Supreme Federal Tribunal's decision doesn't keep da Silva off the ballot. The country's top electoral court makes final decisions about candidacies beginning in August, but it has been expected to deny da Silva's candidacy under Brazil's "clean slate" law, which disqualifies people who have had criminal convictions upheld. Thursday's decision was about much more than the future of a once towering politician trying to make a comeback. Many legal observers had said that allowing da Silva to stay out of jail could have a big impact on all the other cases related to "Car Wash" and other white-collar criminals with the means to continue appealing.
