Americas
Upending Brazil’s Presidential Race, Court Upholds Ex-Leader’s Conviction
RIO
DE JANEIRO — A Brazilian appeals court on Wednesday upheld a corruption
conviction against former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,
jeopardizing his quest to win a third term in office and raising the
prospect that Mr. da Silva, Brazil’s most popular politician, could be
behind bars when ballots are cast in October.
The
ruling was a major victory for prosecutors in what may be the
highest-stakes case in the yearslong showdown between Brazil’s judiciary
and the political elite. Prosecutors have portrayed Mr. da Silva, who
has also been charged in six other corruption cases, as a linchpin of
Brazil’s endemically corrupt political system.
The
unanimous decision by a three-judge panel narrows the paths Mr. da
Silva can pursue to get the conviction overturned and adds fresh
uncertainty to the deeply polarized race to replace President Michel
Temer next year. The judges sentenced Mr. da Silva to 12 years in
prison, lengthening the term imposed by the trial judge.
The
ruling makes Mr. da Silva, a towering figure of Latin America’s
political left, ineligible to run in the presidential election. But he
is widely expected to continue fighting for the right to appear on the
ballot.
His
prosecution and potential disbarment from running for office have
raised doubts about the legitimacy of the election because Mr. da Silva has carved out a significant and sustained lead in the polls.
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Mr.
da Silva’s Workers’ Party responded defiantly to the ruling on
Wednesday afternoon and called on supporters to take to the streets.
“If they think this story ends with today’s decision they’re sorely mistaken,” the party said in a statement. “We won’t give up in the face of this injustice.”
Mr. da Silva, 72, looked drained but sounded resilient when he addressed supporters in São Paulo on Wednesday night.
“Mandela was sent to prison and then he came back and became president of South Africa,” a hoarse-sounding Mr. da Silva said.
An election victory by Mr. da Silva would be a dramatic return to power for him and his party two years after the impeachment of his protégé, Dilma Rousseff. Her removal elevated Mr. Temer, of the center-right Brazilian Democratic Movement party, to the presidency.
Federal Judge Sérgio Moro, the most prominent figure in the judiciary’s crackdown on political corruption, convicted Mr. da Silva in July
on corruption and money laundering charges for accepting bribes from
O.A.S., a major construction company, in the form of a seaside apartment
that was being renovated to his liking. The judge sentenced Mr. da
Silva to nearly a decade in prison, but ruled that he should remain free
pending appeals.
Mr.
da Silva has called the conviction a miscarriage of justice
orchestrated by underhanded political actors within the judiciary.
“We
will continue to fight this political conviction,” Cristiano Zanin
Martins, Mr. da Silva’s lawyer, said in a statement on Wednesday. “And
we will win this fight, not just for Lula but for all Brazilians who
believe that the rule of law and democracy must prevail.”
Mr.
da Silva’s supporters claim that he never lived in, or took ownership
of, the renovated apartment at the heart of the case. They have cast
doubt on the reliability of witnesses who implicated him, asserting that
the witnesses testified in return for leniency in their own corruption
cases.
They
have also noted that politicians accused of more egregious wrongdoing —
including President Temer, who was recorded appearing to condone the
payment of a bribe — have so far dodged accountability.
The
three-judge panel that considered Mr. da Silva’s appeal included two
jurists appointed by the former president’s political ally, Ms.
Rousseff: João Pedro Gebran Neto and Leandro Paulsen. The third judge,
Victor Laus, was appointed by the former President Fernando Henrique
Cardoso.
“There
is evidence that established beyond a reasonable doubt that the
ex-president was one of the leaders, if not the leader, of a vast
corruption scheme,” Judge Gebran Neto said during the hearing. “At a
minimum, the evidence shows that he was aware of it and supported it.”
Anamara
Osório Silva, the president of the National Association of Prosecutors,
denounced what he said were efforts to impugn the integrity of the
judiciary.
“This
is not a politicized prosecution, it is the prosecution of a politician
accused of committing grave crimes,” Ms. Osório said Wednesday. “No one
can be beyond the reach of an independent judicial branch. No one will
intimidate or weaken the resolve of our prosecutors.”
Mr.
da Silva is expected to argue before Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court
and the Supreme Federal Court that disqualifying him from running in the
election would subvert democracy. Political analysts and legal experts
in Brazil say that ultimately the Supreme Court is likely to resolve the
matter.
Mr.
da Silva is not expected to be jailed while appeals are pending. His
backers have warned that imprisoning the former president, who governed
Brazil from 2003 to 2010, would set off a severe response from Workers’
Party loyalists, known by its initials in Portuguese, P.T.
“The
reaction from the P.T. would be to grab him from prison,” Senator
Gleisi Hoffmann, the president of the party, said in an interview last
year. “There’s a culture in Brazil on this issue of arresting a
president, an ex-president, that I think that even the armed forces
would not allow it.”
Senior
politicians and Brazilian scholars have warned in recent days that
barring Mr. da Silva from running would further undermine faith in the
country’s young democracy, which has been rocked in recent years by the
impeachment of Ms. Rousseff and by the sprawling corruption inquiry
known as Lava Jato, or Car Wash, that began in 2014.
Mr. Temer said last week that he hoped Mr. da Silva would be allowed to run.
“I think if Lula participates, it would be a democratic thing, the people will say whether they want him or not,” the president said in an interview with the Folha de São Paulo newspaper
that was published on Saturday. “If he is defeated politically it is
better than being defeated” in the courts, which would make him seem
like a victim, the president added.
Mr. da Silva is expected to travel to Ethiopia later this week for a meeting with African leaders.
During
a meeting with journalists last week, the former president, who rose to
prominence as a union activist during Brazil’s 1964-85 military
dictatorship, characterized the case against him as merely the latest
form of persecution he has faced.
“I
think that those who accuse me today are more worried than I because I
have the peace of mind of those who are innocent,” Mr. da Silva said.
“And they must be feeling the guilt that comes from lying.”
Fans
and critics of the former president took to the streets in São Paulo
and Pôrto Alegre after the decision was announced to celebrate and
denounce the ruling. Leonardo Gregory Brunnet, a 60-year-old physicist
from Pôrto Alegre, said the prosecution of Mr. da Silva left him feeling
drained.
“The
verdict doesn’t strike me as a blow against corruption,” said Mr.
Brunnet, who said he had lost faith in the Workers’ Party because he
felt it did not do enough to reduce inequality. “It strikes me as a
reflection of a profoundly divided society.”
Shasta Darlington contributed reporting from São Paulo, Brazil, and Lis Moriconi from Rio de Janeiro.
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