Former Brazilian President Fernando Collor de Melo (1990-1992) was sentenced last Wednesday to eight years and 10 months in prison on charges of corruption and money laundering, in a case linked to contracts between a construction company and a former subsidiary of state oil. Petrobras Corporation.
The decision came from the Federal Supreme Court, Brazil’s highest court, which last week convicted by majority the former president and ex-senator Collor de Melo, who gained prominence last year through his campaign for ex-president Jair Bolsonaro.
The full Supreme Court discussed, in Wednesday’s session, the ruling that the former president, who took office after winning the 1989 elections, would pass in the first elections after the end of the military dictatorship, in 1985.
Last week, the court decided, by eight votes to two, to sentence Collor de Melo.
The examining magistrate for the case, Edson Faschen, suggested that Collor de Mello be sentenced to 33 years in prison, but since the others opted for lower sentences, an average was reached.
According to the Penal Code, for sentences of more than eight years in prison, the prison system is closed, but the definition of punishment does not mean that Collor de Mello will be arrested immediately.
The former president can file an appeal to contest the highest court’s decision and he also has the mitigating factor of being 73 years old.
The former president was sentenced in a 2013 case investigated by Operation Lava Jato regarding fraudulent contracts at Petrobras.
The case concerns Collor de Mello and businessmen Luis Pereira Duarte of Amorim and Pedro Paolo Bergamaski of Leoni Ramos.
The judges decided that there were bribes of about 20 million riyals (about $3.9 million).
Collor de Mello resigned from the Brazilian presidency in 1992, amid an impeachment trial on corruption charges against him.
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