Former Brazilian President Collor de Mello sentenced to more than 8 years in jail

The former Brazilian president, Fernando Collor de Mello (1990-1992), was sentenced yesterday, Wednesday, to eight years and 10 months of effective imprisonment for corruption and money laundering, in a case linked to contracts between a construction company and a former subsidiary of the state-owned oil company Petrobras.

The decision came from the Supreme Federal Court, Brazil’s controversial highest court, which had convicted by a majority last week former president and former senator Collor de Mello, who gained public relevance last year by campaigning for former president Jair Bolsonaro.

In Wednesday’s session, the full Supreme Court discussed the sentence to be served by the former president, who took office after winning the 1989 elections, in the first elections after the end of the military dictatorship, in 1985.

Last week, by eight votes to two, the court had already decided to sentence Collor de Mello.

The investigating judge in the case, Edson Fachin, proposed that Collor de Mello be sentenced to 33 years in prison. Still, an average was reached since the others opted for lesser sentences.

According to the Penal Code, the prison regime is closed for sentences of more than eight years of imprisonment. Still, the definition of the sentence does not mean that Collor de Mello will be arrested immediately.

The former president may file appeals challenging the highest court’s decision, and he also has the extenuating circumstance of being 73 years old.

The former president was sentenced for a 2013 case investigated by the “Lava Jato” operation on fraudulent contracts at Petrobras.

The case involves Collor de Mello and business people Luis Pereira Duarte de Amorim and Pedro Paulo Bergamaschi de Leoni Ramos.

The judges determined that there were bribes of about 20 million reais (about US$ 3.9 million).

Collor de Mello resigned as President of Brazil in 1992 amid an impeachment trial on corruption charges against him.

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