Brazil’s former president, Fernando Collor, has been arrested early and ordered to start serving a jail sentence stemming from his 2023 conviction for corruption.
Collor was convicted of receiving 20m reais ($3.5m) to facilitate contracts between BR Distribuidora, a gas distributor previously managed by the state-owned oil firm Petrobras, and building agency UTC Engenharia for the development of gas distribution bases. In return, he supplied political help for the appointment of executives at BR Distribuidora when it was nonetheless state-owned.
Collor, who led the nation from 1990 to 1992, was sentenced to eight years and 10 months, to be served initially in jail, somewhat than underneath home arrest. He was arrested on Friday within the northeastern state of Alagoas.
Underneath the Brazilian authorized system, instances regarding members of Congress, presidents and ministers go on to the supreme court docket. He was not but in jail as a result of his legal professionals had been nonetheless lodging appeals.
The case stemmed from the Operation Automotive Wash, a sweeping corruption investigation that has implicated prime politicians and businesspeople throughout Latin America – together with the present president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was arrested in 2018 and imprisoned for almost two years.
Collor, 75, was the primary Brazilian president elected by fashionable vote, in 1989, after a 21-year army dictatorship. He was impeached and faraway from workplace by Congress in 1992 following corruption allegations. In 2007, he was elected as a senator representing his dwelling state of Alagoas in northeastern Brazil.
Supreme court docket Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the previous president’s arrest Thursday, with the total board set to vote on Friday whether or not to verify the choice. De Moraes mentioned in his choice that Collor ought to start serving his sentence, noting that the previous president’s legal professionals have tried to tug out proceedings by means of appeals.
The justice additionally mentioned that the court docket had beforehand dominated in comparable instances that, as soon as appeals haven’t any benefit, the sentence might be served immediately.
Collor’s legal professionals didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
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