SAN FRANCISCO, February 01, (THEWILL) –
The Brazilian Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) has rejected a motion by former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s defense team to avoid his arrest for a graft conviction that was upheld last week.
Justice Humberto Martins denied the request filed on Tuesday morning in a statement published on the court’s website, saying such petitions are only applicable when there is a “concrete threat of imminent imprisonment.”
Judges ruled that the former President should be arrested as soon as the court explains details of the ruling to the defense, a process that usually takes a month.
Lula, who was the President of Brazil from January 1, 2003 to January 1, 2011, was found guilty of corruption and money laundering in 2017 while a three-judge panel of a Brazilian appeal court voted unanimously to ratify his conviction and to extend his original sentence from nine and a half years in prison to 12 years.
Under the country’s law, a convict can be put into jail following verdicts from the second trial, even if he still has the right to appeal for a final judgement.
According to Lula’s defense team, imprisoning the former President before the final judgement is a violation to the presumption of innocence arguing further that Lula, being the front-runner for Brazil’s October Presidential election, an early imprisonment could damage the democratic process in the country.
Meanwhile, a Federal Judge had ordered the public auction of a beachfront apartment allegedly used to bribe the former President in exchange for his help with engineering company OAS to get contracts from state oil company Petrobras.
However, Lula’s team argued there was no evidence that links him to the promise of receiving the apartment where he never lived revealing that he visited the apartment only once.
