Brazil top court votes 6–5 against Lula’s habeas petition

Brazil’s Supreme Court voted 6–5 to deny the habeas corpus petition filed by the counsel of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a bid to prevent him from being jailed after the end of all appeal possibilities in the appellate court. The former leader’s attorneys had been attempting to try to change a Supreme Court ruling issued in 2016 authorizing arrests after the end of all appeals in the appellate court. The Wednesday session (Apr. 4) lasted about nine hours.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Cármen Lúcia was the last one to vote, and said she retained the same understanding she had had in all votes since 2009, when she advocated incarceration after an appellate court conviction. “I believe there’s no violation of, or affront to, the presumption of innocence if a sentence starts after an appellate court decision,” she said, breaking the tie.

In July last year, Lula was sentenced by trial court judge Sérgio Moro to nine years and six months in prison as part of a case linked to Operation Car Wash over the ownership of a triplex apartment in coastal Guarujá, São Paulo. In January this year, an appellate court increased the sentence to 12 years and a month.

The decision strips Lula of a safe-conduct granted by the top court on March 22, which allowed him to remain free before a final decision was made. His imprisonment, however, is pending, as an appeal is still ongoing. The former president is also to be notified of the end of all proceedings.

In similar cases under Operation Car Wash, imprisonment was ruled before the official court notification. In other cases, all deliberations had to end before the arrest order was issued.

*Additional reporting by Felipe Pontes

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira