Wednesday 18 May 2016

Former Brazil presidential chief of staff sentenced to 23 years for corruption

 Former Brazil presidential chief of staff sentenced to 23 years for corruption 

 

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  • José Dirceu worked for former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
  • Dirceu guilty of role in vast bribery scandal at Petrobras oil company
José Dirceu, former chief of staff to the former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is escorted to federal police headquarters in Curitiba in August 2015.
José Dirceu, former chief of staff to the former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is escorted to federal police headquarters in Curitiba in August. Photograph: Hedeson Alves/EPA
A one-time chief of staff for the former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was sentenced to 23 years in prison on Wednesday for corruption, money-laundering and conspiracy in a vast bribery scandal at the state-run oil company.
José Dirceu, a top powerbroker in the leftist Workers’ party that governed Brazil from 2003 until last week, had previously been sentenced separately by the supreme court to over 10 years in prison for running a congressional vote-buying operation.
“Not even a conviction by the country’s highest court could inhibit criminal relapse,” federal judge Sérgio Moro wrote in his sentencing decision, noting that Dirceu had been taking part in the bribery scheme even after he was convicted for vote-buying.
Moro is overseeing the investigation of state-run Petróleo Brasileiro SA, commonly known as Petrobras.
The corruption investigation, Brazil’s biggest ever, has led to the imprisonment of business executives and veteran politicians, contributed to its worst recession in decades and stirred public outrage that fanned an impeachment process against President Dilma Rousseff.
Brazil’s senate last week suspended Rousseff, Lula’s hand-picked successor, pending the outcome of a trial in the chamber for violating budget rules. The move cleared the way for a more business-friendly government to take power on an interim basis.
Rousseff has not been accused of wrongdoing as part of the Petrobras case. Lula, who founded the Workers’ party along with Dirceu and other leftwing activists in the 1980s, is under investigation because of accusations he received favours paid for by companies indicted in the inquiry.


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