Former Brazilian president jailed for corruption | USAEMALL.com

A Brazilian Supreme Court judge has ordered the imprisonment of former president Fernando Collor de Mello for eight years and 10 months for corruption.

Justice Alexandre De Moraes on Thursday rejected the former senator’s final appeal and ordered the immediate start of the sentence imposed in May 2023, the Supreme Court said in a statement.

Collor de Mello was convicted by the country’s highest court for passive corruption and money laundering, but the sentence was never carried out because a series of appeals were pending.

However, De Moraes dismissed the former president’s final appeal due to its “merely dilatory” nature, which, according to the judge, sought to avoid a final outcome to the case.

Thus, the judge ordered “immediate compliance with the conviction” for the 75-year-old former head of state, who was initially placed under a closed regime.

Collor de Mello was found guilty of participating in a corruption scheme at BR Distribuidora, a former subsidiary of the state-owned oil company Petrobras.

According to the ruling, the former senator, with the collaboration of two businessmen, “received BRL20 million ($A5.5 million) to irregularly secure contracts between BR Distribuidora and a third company “for the construction of fuel distribution bases.”

“The irregular commissions were made in exchange for political support for the appointment and retention of directors of the state-owned company,” the Supreme Court said in the report.

De Moraes’s ruling will now be submitted to the scrutiny of the Supreme Court, comprising 11 judges, in a virtual session scheduled for Friday, “without prejudice to the immediate start of serving his sentence.”

Collor de Mello governed Brazil between 1990 and 1992, when he resigned as parliament was preparing to conclude an impeachment trial against him, on charges of alleged corruption, of which he was later acquitted by the same supreme court.

Between 2007 and 2023, Collor de Mello held a seat in the senate, and in 2022, he ran unsuccessfully for governor of the state of Alagoas, a position he had previously held before becoming president.