Elderly former Brazilian president Fernando Collor de Mello, who was jailed final week for corruption, will be allowed to serve his sentence beneath house arrest for “humanitarian” causes, a decide stated Thursday.
Brazil’s first democratically-elected president after a decades-long dictatorship final week started serving a nine-year sentence for taking bribes whereas a senator between 2010 and 2014.
The 75-year-old, who’s affected by Parkinson’s illness, was convicted of taking 20 million reais ($3.5 million) in bribes to prepare contracts between a building firm and a former subsidiary of Brazil’s state oil firm Petrobras.
Mr Collor was jailed in a jail within the northeastern metropolis of Maceio, the place he has a residence.
His legal professionals had requested that he be allowed serve his sentence at dwelling.
Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who ordered him to jail, agreed to the request, citing Collor’s “serious health situation…his age and the necessity of special treatment.”
Mr. Collor could have to hand in his passport and put on an digital ankle bracelet, Moraes added.
Mr. Collor resigned as president in 1992, after lower than three years in energy, to keep away from being impeached by parliament for corruption.
He shouldn’t be the primary former Brazilian chief to fall foul of the regulation.
Far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro has been ordered to stand trial over an alleged coup plot after shedding elections in 2022.
And left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who served two phrases between 2003 and 2010, spent a year-and-a-half behind bars for bribe-taking and cash laundering earlier than having his conviction annulled and profitable a 3rd time period in October 2022.
Published – May 02, 2025 02:35 am IST
