Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been sentenced to nine and a half years in jail for corruption and money laundering.
Lula, who was president between 2003 and 2010, will remain free while an appeal is heard.
In the first of five trials, judge Sergio Moro found Lula guilty of accepting 3.7 million reais (£890,000) worth of bribes from engineering firm OAS SA, the amount prosecutors said the company spent refurbishing a beach apartment for Lula in return for his help winning contracts with state oil company Petroleo Brasileiro.
More to come…
__________
Follow us on Twitter at @thesignalng
Copyright 2017 SIGNAL. Permission to use portions of this article is granted provided appropriate credits are given to www.signalng.com and other relevant sources.
