Former Brazilian President Fernando Collor de Mello Sentenced to Prison for Corruption

Former Brazilian center-right President Fernando Collor de Mello (1990-1992) was sentenced to eight years and ten months in prison for corruption by the Supreme Court of Brazil on Wednesday. The conviction is part of the “Car Wash” scandal involving construction companies.

As the first Brazilian head of state to be elected by direct universal suffrage after the military dictatorship, 73-year-old Collor is accused of accepting 20 million reais (approximately 5.5 million Canadian dollars) in bribes from 2010 to 2014, during his time as a senator.

According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, around forty payments were made to irregularly facilitate the signing of contracts between a construction company and a subsidiary of the state-owned oil company Petrobras.

On Thursday, eight out of the ten Supreme Court judges ruled in favor of Collor de Mello’s conviction. The rapporteur of the case, Judge Edson Fachin, concluded that the former president had used “his political influence to facilitate the signing of contracts” and mentioned a potential sentence of up to 33 years in prison.

The “proved” facts revealed during the investigation are “extremely serious” and “portray the harmful diversion of public functions for personal and financial enrichment,” stated Fachin on the final day of the trial.

The investigation was launched as part of the “Car Wash” scandal, which shook the entire Brazilian political landscape starting in 2014.

In 1989, Collor’s election, at just 40 years old, as he faced off against current left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the second round, sparked immense hope. However, Brazilians were quickly disillusioned: barely two years into his presidency, Collor de Mello resigned after Congress initiated impeachment proceedings against him for passive corruption.

Nevertheless, he managed to make a political comeback in 2006, getting elected as a senator from Alagoas, a poor northeastern state. He served in that position until the end of last year.

Towards the end of his second eight-year term in the upper house, Collor de Mello openly supported right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro.

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