Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been convicted of corruption charges and sentenced to nine and a half years in prison.

Silva will remain free pending when an appeal is heard as the judge ruled.

Silva was accused of receiving a beachfront apartment as a kickback from construction company OAS. Prosecutors also alleged OAS did repairs to the apartment and paid to store Silva’s belongings. The former president has said the charges are completely unfounded.

The case is part of a massive corruption investigation that has roiled Brazilian politics that has seen business executives and elite politicians jailed.
“The present conviction does not bring this judge any personal satisfaction. Quite the contrary, it is regrettable that a former president be criminally convicted,” federal Judge Sergio Moro wrote in his decision. “It doesn’t matter how high you are, the law is still above you.”

Moro said he did not order Silva’s immediate arrest because the conviction of a president is such a serious matter that he felt an appeal should be heard first.

Silva, who was president between 2003 and 2010, is leading polls for next year’s presidential election.

The case will now be heard by a group of magistrates. If they uphold the conviction, Brazilian law says that Silva would be barred from seeking office.

ftc

That's a serious nation.

Only happens in a sane country, not here in Nigeria. He would have been given a pardon based on "Personal Recognition". Smh

Getintouch2004:
Only happens in a sane country, not here in Nigeria. He would have been given a pardon based on "Personal Recognition". Smh

So it's sane for him to contest again after ruling for 7years with corruption charges on his head.

Pavarottii:

So it's sane for him to contest again after ruling for 7years with corruption charges on his head.

Read what i wrote again, but this time very slowly.

That's how you know progressive people.
Where we come from, a sitting president allowed a foreign company to build a Church for him in his village and the other one bought a plot of land he doesn't know here it is located.