Ex-president of Brazil Lula da Silva received 9 and a half years for rollbacks

Sergiu Moru - a federal judge in the city of Kuritib, the capital of the Brazilian state of Paran, sentenced the former president of the country Luis Inasiu Lulu da Silva to nine and a half years in prison in the case of corruption. It is reported by Reuters.

Before the sentence enters into legal force, the 71-year-old Lula remains at large. The appeal, as expected, will be considered no earlier than after eight months.

The ex-president himself did not plead guilty, calling his persecution political.

According to the plot of the case, for assistance in concluding contracts with the state oil company Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras), the OAS engineering company held a repair in the Lula house on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Its amount is estimated at 3.7 million reactions (1.2 million dollars).

This is only the first of the five cases aroused against Lula; The rest have not yet reached the court. The facts imputed by the ex-president were revealed during a large-scale investigation of kickbacks in Petrobras. This investigation has been going on for more than three years; As the prosecutors found out, the largest businessmen and senior government officials are involved in corruption schemes. The publication of the results of the investigation seriously undermined the country's political system.

Lula, a member of the working party, served as president for two terms - from January 2003 to January 2011. At the time of resignation, 83 percent of citizens approved his activities. Lula's social policy led to a significant reduction in inequality in Brazilian society.

Even after the charges, the ex-president retained considerable popularity. He declared his intention to run for the next election of the head of state next year. However, if the appeal confirms the verdict, Lula will no longer be able to nominate its candidacy.

Senator Glazi Hofman, the leader of the working party, directly stated that the accusatory sentence to Lule was sentenced precisely in order to prevent him from participating in the elections.

The successor of Lula as the head of state was one of his closest colleagues Dilm Rusef, who in 2005-2010 headed the Lula administration. In 2014, she elected for a second term. However, in 2016, the Brazilian Congress announced her impeachment . One of the reasons was suspicion of involvement in corruption schemes used to withdraw money from Petrobras during the years when Rusef headed this company.