Brazil court dismisses corruption trial against Lula

Brazil's Supreme Court opened the way for Luis Ignacio da Silva (Lula) to run in the presidential campaign in 2022 Thursday, issuing a ruling supporting a decision to annul corruption charges against the former president and lifting any legal restrictions to his running in next year's elections.

The 8-3 decision did not find Lula innocent of the corruption charges that led to his conviction and imprisonment in 2018, but leaves the case against him back to square one for government prosecutors, who now will have to pursue any charges in other courts, starting the process anew.

The court on Wednesday had begun assessing the decision by Justice Luiz Edson Fachin on March 8 to annul da Silva’s two corruption convictions, which were related to the massive “Car Wash” scandal focused on the state oil company. On hearing the news on Thursday, Bolsonaro declared on his Facebook page the decision was flawed and warned a Lula Presidency would be a disaster for Brazil.

"Imagine how the future of Brazil will be, with the kind of people he is going to bring to the Presidency," he said.

Prosecutors had asked the Supreme Court to reinstate the corruption charges against Lula after the lower court ruled against them on jurisdictional grounds. The decision leaves open the possibility government prosecutors will pursue the charges in other courts, but experts say they will face a struggle to win given the Supreme Court's decision.

Da Silva was leading polls in 2018 when he was knocked out of the race by a conviction involving a beachfront apartment that prosecutors alleged - and he denied - belonged to him. Bolsonaro won the election and the judge who oversaw da Silva’s conviction, Sergio Moro, became his justice minister. One of the top court’s two panels of justices already ruled Moro was biased against da Silva. Early polling for the 2022 election shows the 75-year-old leftist, who governed Brazil between 2003 and 2010, neck-and-neck with Bolsonaro. 

Image Credits: AP