Brazil top court resumes examination of ex-President Lula’s habeas petition

Brazil’s Supreme Court resumed this afternoon (Apr. 4) the trial on former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s habeas corpus petition, filed in a bid to prevent his imprisonment after the end of all appeal possibilities in the country’s appellate courts.

The case was first brought to trial on March 22, but the court session was subsequently interrupted, and the former leader was granted a safe-conduct and waited for today’s ruling at liberty. Lula was convicted by Federal Judge Sérgio Moro to nine years and six months in prison and by the Federal Regional Court of the Fourth Region (TRF4), which increased the sentence to 12 years and one month in the case surrounding the triplex apartment in coastal Guarujá, São Paulo, conducted under Operation Car Wash.

In today’s trial, the 11 justices making up the court should discuss if the onetime president is to start serving the sentence handed down by the appellate court, even though there are still appeals under consideration in higher courts, like the Superior Court of Justice, and also the Supreme Court itself. The decision about Lula is believed to have an impact on the situation of other convicts. 

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira

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