Brazil will send Lula Da Silva to prison!
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Brazil’s Supreme Court Rejects Former President’s Bid to Avoid Jail
Brazil’s Supreme Court Rejects Former President’s Bid to Avoid Jail
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had sought to remain free while he appeals corruption conviction
By
Samantha Pearson and
Paulo Trevisani
April 4, 2018 11:48 p.m. ET
Demonstrators against Brazil's former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva celebrate as Supreme Court justices' votes are made public outside the National Congress in Brasília. Photo: Eraldo Peres/Associated Press
SÃO PAULO—Brazil’s Supreme Court rejected former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s efforts to avoid jail in a watershed ruling early Thursday that is expected to land the populist leader behind bars and end his bid for re-election.
In a case that has divided this nation and put the country’s three-decade-old democracy to the test, the court’s justices voted 6-5 against the leftist icon, denying his request to remain out of prison while he exhausts all possible appeals against his conviction for corruption.
The 72-year-old was found guilty last year of accepting a penthouse apartment from a construction firm in exchange for favors, landing him a 12-year prison sentence and marking a dramatic fall from grace for the former shoeshine boy who left office seven years ago as one of the world’s most popular politicians.
Brazil’s Supreme Court Rejects Former President’s Bid to Avoid Jail
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had sought to remain free while he appeals corruption conviction
By
Samantha Pearson and
Paulo Trevisani
April 4, 2018 11:48 p.m. ET
Demonstrators against Brazil's former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva celebrate as Supreme Court justices' votes are made public outside the National Congress in Brasília. Photo: Eraldo Peres/Associated Press
SÃO PAULO—Brazil’s Supreme Court rejected former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s efforts to avoid jail in a watershed ruling early Thursday that is expected to land the populist leader behind bars and end his bid for re-election.
In a case that has divided this nation and put the country’s three-decade-old democracy to the test, the court’s justices voted 6-5 against the leftist icon, denying his request to remain out of prison while he exhausts all possible appeals against his conviction for corruption.
The 72-year-old was found guilty last year of accepting a penthouse apartment from a construction firm in exchange for favors, landing him a 12-year prison sentence and marking a dramatic fall from grace for the former shoeshine boy who left office seven years ago as one of the world’s most popular politicians.
Brazil’s Ex-President, ‘Lula,’ Can Be Jailed, Court Rules
Brazil’s Ex-President, ‘Lula,’ Can Be Jailed, Court Rules
By ERNESTO LONDOÑO and SHASTA DARLINGTONAPRIL 4, 2018
Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil during a campaign rally in in March. He has a significant lead in polls ahead of a presidential election scheduled for October. Eraldo Peres/Associated Press
BOA VISTA, Brazil — Brazil’s top court ruled early Thursday that former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva can be sent to prison while he continues to appeal his corruption conviction — an explosive decision that upends the nation’s politics and appears to quash his bid to return to power.
There is more at stake than the legal fate of Mr. da Silva, 72, a towering and divisive figure in Brazilian politics who has a considerable lead in the polls for October’s presidential election.
The 6 to 5 ruling against the former president, who has called his prosecution an underhanded ploy to keep him off the ballot, is likely to call into question the legitimacy of the election in the eyes of many Brazilians.
“No matter how many roses the mighty kill, they will never manage to stop spring,” Mr. da Silva’s Workers’ Party said in a statement posted on Twitter after his fate became clear.
Chief Justice Cármen Lúcia Antunes Rocha cast the deciding vote after midnight, at the end of a marathon session.
The country is still deeply divided over the impeachment of Mr. da Silva’s chosen successor, Dilma Rousseff, who was removed from office in 2016 on charges of manipulating the federal budget to hide the nation’s growing economic problems.
Her ouster put an end to 13 years of governments led by the leftist Workers’ Party, a period when Brazil’s economy soared, millions of people entered the middle class and the country’s profile rose on the global stage.
But enormous corruption scandals and the worst economic crisis in decades left Ms. Rousseff and her party battered, with little support to fend off a power grab by their political rivals.
Mr. da Silva, who is known commonly as Lula, has been trying to reclaim the presidency. But last July, he was convicted of corruption and money laundering, and sentenced to almost 10 years in prison. In January, an appeals court unanimously upheld the conviction and increased the sentence to 12 years.
Mr. da Silva, who served as president from 2003 to 2011, appealed the sentence to the country’s top court, the Supreme Federal Court, asking to be allowed to remain free while additional appeals are pending — a process that could drag on for years.
That forced the justices to wrestle with a question with far-reaching implications for scores of other powerful figures ensnared in the large-scalecorruption investigation known as Car Wash, including the current president, Michel Temer: At what point in the appeals process may a defendant be imprisoned?
On Wednesday, the court gave its answer: It decided to maintain the status quo, which holds that defendants can be imprisoned after an appeals court upholds a verdict against them. With the ruling in hand, Sérgio Moro, the federal judge who presided over Mr. da Silva’s trial, is expected to issue an arrest warrant for the former president in a matter of days.
“Don’t think the fight will be easy,” Mr. da Silva told supporters at a rally in Rio de Janeiro on Monday. “It’s O.K. if we lose one round, but we cannot lose our willingness to fight.”
Brazil’s army chief, Gen. Eduardo Villas Bôas, made a rare incursion into politics Tuesday night, saying that the armed forces “repudiates impunity.” Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters
Prosecutors regard Mr. da Silva’s case as the highest-stakes prosecution in their long crackdown on corruption, an effort that enjoys widespread support among Brazilians.
If the court had allowed Mr. da Silva to remain free, it would have enraged the crusading prosecutors and judges who have tried since 2014 to stamp out Brazil’s entrenched culture of graft.
Thousands of the former president’s critics demonstrated Tuesday night, demanding that the justices uphold their 2016 ruling that allows trial judges to jail defendants after a first appeal has been rejected. More than 5,000 prosecutors and judges have signed a petition supporting that position.
But Mr. da Silva still commands the loyalty of millions of Brazilians. His supporters contend that removing the country’s most popular presidential candidate from the ballot would be an affront to democracy. They say the case against him is nothing more than political persecution, and they vowed to take to the streets if the court ruled he can be imprisoned.
Before the ruling, the chief justice of the top court, Cármen Lúcia Antunes Rocha, called for calm in a rare televised speech.
“We are living in times of intolerance and intransigence,” she said. “The strengthening of Brazilian democracy depends on civic unity for the peaceful coexistence of everyone. Different opinions must be respected.”
Justice Roberto Barroso, who voted against Mr. da Silva in the ruling on Wednesday, noted that the president left office with high approval ratings and an impressive set of accomplishments.
“We are not debating about a political legacy,” he said. “It is whether jurisprudence that the court settled must be applied to all people. It is a test of our democracy.”
The ruling does not technically disqualify Mr. da Silva’s candidacy. Instead, it preserved the legal status quo, which allows trial judges to seek arrests warrants for defendants convicted of white-collar crime once an appeals court has upheld the verdict.
A different body — the Supreme Electoral Tribunal — will review each candidate’s eligibility forms starting in mid-August. It is widely expected to reject Mr. da Silva’s bid for office under the “clean slate” law, which disqualifies anyone who has a criminal conviction that has been upheld by an appeals court.
Legal experts say that Mr. da Silva could try to fight the electoral court’s ruling if he remained free, but that his imprisonment makes that quest all but impossible.
Thousands of people on both sides of the issue gathered in Brasília, the capital, for the court’s decision on Wednesday.
Passions have been running high as Mr. da Silva’s candidacy has become increasingly embattled. Last week, the former president’s campaign buses were hit by gunshots as he campaigned in southern Brazil. No one was hurt.
A protest against Mr. da Silva in Sao Paulo, ahead of a Supreme Court ruling on whether he should start a 12-year prison sentence for corruption, potentially upending this year’s presidential election. Miguel Schincariol/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Gen. Eduardo Villas Bôas, the chief of the army, raised tensions higher still with his posts on Twitter on Tuesday, declaring that the military “repudiates impunity.”
It was a rare venture into politics that was widely interpreted as saying that the Supreme Federal Court should rule against Mr. da Silva.
In a country that was ruled by the military from 1964 to 1985, critics reacted with alarm, calling the comment inappropriate pressure at best, and at worst a veiled threat of military intervention if the former president prevailed in court.
Rodrigo Janot, a former attorney general, responded on Twitter: “This definitely isn’t good. If it is what it seems, another 1964 would be unacceptable,” he said, referring to the coup that ushered in Brazil’s military dictatorship.
But many others backed the army chief. His posts were shared more than 10,000 times and liked by more than 20,000 people in just three hours.
Many people, including other military leaders, posted messages with their support. “We’re in the trenches together!!! We think alike!!! Brazil above all!!!” wrote Gen. Antonio Miotto.
In Mr. da Silva’s trial, Judge Moro found that the former president had accepted bribes — in the form of an oceanfront apartment — in return for steering contracts to a construction company.
The corruption allegations against Mr. da Silva are only a small part of the wide-ranging Car Wash corruption investigation.
The investigation, which began in 2014 with a seemingly routine inquiry into money-laundering accusations, has ensnared scores of powerful business executives and politicians across the political spectrum.
But Mr. da Silva’s case carries tremendous legal and political implications for the country.
In an editorial published in the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper on Wednesday, Prosecutor General Raquel Dodge said that allowing defendants to remain free after repeated appeals had been rejected was an “exaggeration that annihilates the justice system because then justice is delayed, and for this, it fails.”
Jorge Oliveira, 50, a former army paratrooper, said he hoped that Mr. da Silva would be jailed soon and that his downfall would be the first step toward a drastic political transformation.
“The guy needs to be jailed,” Mr. Oliveira. “Then a general needs to take power, oust Temer, hold things together for three years and call for new elections.”
Jéssica da Silva Facundo, by contrast, said she had been rooting for Mr. da Silva, largely out of nostalgia for the prosperity Brazil experienced during his time in power.
“Despite the fact that he stole, during his government I was doing better,” said Ms. da Silva, who is not related to the former president.
Brazil’s Ex-President, ‘Lula,’ Can Be Jailed, Court Rules
By ERNESTO LONDOÑO and SHASTA DARLINGTONAPRIL 4, 2018
Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil during a campaign rally in in March. He has a significant lead in polls ahead of a presidential election scheduled for October. Eraldo Peres/Associated Press
BOA VISTA, Brazil — Brazil’s top court ruled early Thursday that former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva can be sent to prison while he continues to appeal his corruption conviction — an explosive decision that upends the nation’s politics and appears to quash his bid to return to power.
There is more at stake than the legal fate of Mr. da Silva, 72, a towering and divisive figure in Brazilian politics who has a considerable lead in the polls for October’s presidential election.
The 6 to 5 ruling against the former president, who has called his prosecution an underhanded ploy to keep him off the ballot, is likely to call into question the legitimacy of the election in the eyes of many Brazilians.
“No matter how many roses the mighty kill, they will never manage to stop spring,” Mr. da Silva’s Workers’ Party said in a statement posted on Twitter after his fate became clear.
Chief Justice Cármen Lúcia Antunes Rocha cast the deciding vote after midnight, at the end of a marathon session.
The country is still deeply divided over the impeachment of Mr. da Silva’s chosen successor, Dilma Rousseff, who was removed from office in 2016 on charges of manipulating the federal budget to hide the nation’s growing economic problems.
Her ouster put an end to 13 years of governments led by the leftist Workers’ Party, a period when Brazil’s economy soared, millions of people entered the middle class and the country’s profile rose on the global stage.
But enormous corruption scandals and the worst economic crisis in decades left Ms. Rousseff and her party battered, with little support to fend off a power grab by their political rivals.
Mr. da Silva, who is known commonly as Lula, has been trying to reclaim the presidency. But last July, he was convicted of corruption and money laundering, and sentenced to almost 10 years in prison. In January, an appeals court unanimously upheld the conviction and increased the sentence to 12 years.
Mr. da Silva, who served as president from 2003 to 2011, appealed the sentence to the country’s top court, the Supreme Federal Court, asking to be allowed to remain free while additional appeals are pending — a process that could drag on for years.
That forced the justices to wrestle with a question with far-reaching implications for scores of other powerful figures ensnared in the large-scalecorruption investigation known as Car Wash, including the current president, Michel Temer: At what point in the appeals process may a defendant be imprisoned?
On Wednesday, the court gave its answer: It decided to maintain the status quo, which holds that defendants can be imprisoned after an appeals court upholds a verdict against them. With the ruling in hand, Sérgio Moro, the federal judge who presided over Mr. da Silva’s trial, is expected to issue an arrest warrant for the former president in a matter of days.
“Don’t think the fight will be easy,” Mr. da Silva told supporters at a rally in Rio de Janeiro on Monday. “It’s O.K. if we lose one round, but we cannot lose our willingness to fight.”
Brazil’s army chief, Gen. Eduardo Villas Bôas, made a rare incursion into politics Tuesday night, saying that the armed forces “repudiates impunity.” Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters
Prosecutors regard Mr. da Silva’s case as the highest-stakes prosecution in their long crackdown on corruption, an effort that enjoys widespread support among Brazilians.
If the court had allowed Mr. da Silva to remain free, it would have enraged the crusading prosecutors and judges who have tried since 2014 to stamp out Brazil’s entrenched culture of graft.
Thousands of the former president’s critics demonstrated Tuesday night, demanding that the justices uphold their 2016 ruling that allows trial judges to jail defendants after a first appeal has been rejected. More than 5,000 prosecutors and judges have signed a petition supporting that position.
But Mr. da Silva still commands the loyalty of millions of Brazilians. His supporters contend that removing the country’s most popular presidential candidate from the ballot would be an affront to democracy. They say the case against him is nothing more than political persecution, and they vowed to take to the streets if the court ruled he can be imprisoned.
Before the ruling, the chief justice of the top court, Cármen Lúcia Antunes Rocha, called for calm in a rare televised speech.
“We are living in times of intolerance and intransigence,” she said. “The strengthening of Brazilian democracy depends on civic unity for the peaceful coexistence of everyone. Different opinions must be respected.”
Justice Roberto Barroso, who voted against Mr. da Silva in the ruling on Wednesday, noted that the president left office with high approval ratings and an impressive set of accomplishments.
“We are not debating about a political legacy,” he said. “It is whether jurisprudence that the court settled must be applied to all people. It is a test of our democracy.”
The ruling does not technically disqualify Mr. da Silva’s candidacy. Instead, it preserved the legal status quo, which allows trial judges to seek arrests warrants for defendants convicted of white-collar crime once an appeals court has upheld the verdict.
A different body — the Supreme Electoral Tribunal — will review each candidate’s eligibility forms starting in mid-August. It is widely expected to reject Mr. da Silva’s bid for office under the “clean slate” law, which disqualifies anyone who has a criminal conviction that has been upheld by an appeals court.
Legal experts say that Mr. da Silva could try to fight the electoral court’s ruling if he remained free, but that his imprisonment makes that quest all but impossible.
Thousands of people on both sides of the issue gathered in Brasília, the capital, for the court’s decision on Wednesday.
Passions have been running high as Mr. da Silva’s candidacy has become increasingly embattled. Last week, the former president’s campaign buses were hit by gunshots as he campaigned in southern Brazil. No one was hurt.
A protest against Mr. da Silva in Sao Paulo, ahead of a Supreme Court ruling on whether he should start a 12-year prison sentence for corruption, potentially upending this year’s presidential election. Miguel Schincariol/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Gen. Eduardo Villas Bôas, the chief of the army, raised tensions higher still with his posts on Twitter on Tuesday, declaring that the military “repudiates impunity.”
It was a rare venture into politics that was widely interpreted as saying that the Supreme Federal Court should rule against Mr. da Silva.
In a country that was ruled by the military from 1964 to 1985, critics reacted with alarm, calling the comment inappropriate pressure at best, and at worst a veiled threat of military intervention if the former president prevailed in court.
Rodrigo Janot, a former attorney general, responded on Twitter: “This definitely isn’t good. If it is what it seems, another 1964 would be unacceptable,” he said, referring to the coup that ushered in Brazil’s military dictatorship.
But many others backed the army chief. His posts were shared more than 10,000 times and liked by more than 20,000 people in just three hours.
Many people, including other military leaders, posted messages with their support. “We’re in the trenches together!!! We think alike!!! Brazil above all!!!” wrote Gen. Antonio Miotto.
In Mr. da Silva’s trial, Judge Moro found that the former president had accepted bribes — in the form of an oceanfront apartment — in return for steering contracts to a construction company.
The corruption allegations against Mr. da Silva are only a small part of the wide-ranging Car Wash corruption investigation.
The investigation, which began in 2014 with a seemingly routine inquiry into money-laundering accusations, has ensnared scores of powerful business executives and politicians across the political spectrum.
But Mr. da Silva’s case carries tremendous legal and political implications for the country.
In an editorial published in the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper on Wednesday, Prosecutor General Raquel Dodge said that allowing defendants to remain free after repeated appeals had been rejected was an “exaggeration that annihilates the justice system because then justice is delayed, and for this, it fails.”
Jorge Oliveira, 50, a former army paratrooper, said he hoped that Mr. da Silva would be jailed soon and that his downfall would be the first step toward a drastic political transformation.
“The guy needs to be jailed,” Mr. Oliveira. “Then a general needs to take power, oust Temer, hold things together for three years and call for new elections.”
Jéssica da Silva Facundo, by contrast, said she had been rooting for Mr. da Silva, largely out of nostalgia for the prosperity Brazil experienced during his time in power.
“Despite the fact that he stole, during his government I was doing better,” said Ms. da Silva, who is not related to the former president.
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Get 12 years for penthouse, brehs. 
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Fast Money & Foreign Objects
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Trump somewhere sweating 
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Your Favorite Tio!
He went from market reformer to inmate #27261 in 10 years. I wrote a college paper on Lula. He did a good job in balancing out social justice reforms with economic policies. There are valid aeguements that he created long term social problems but those are subjective. He did piss off a lot of elites and powerful nations.
Of course the law is subjective: Just ask Trump & his real eataes deals
Of course the law is subjective: Just ask Trump & his real eataes deals
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