Fernando Collor de Mello – Adomonline.com https://www.adomonline.com Your comprehensive news portal Thu, 01 Jun 2023 17:26:37 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 https://www.adomonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-Adomonline140-32x32.png Fernando Collor de Mello – Adomonline.com https://www.adomonline.com 32 32 Brazil’s ex-President jailed for corruption https://www.adomonline.com/brazils-ex-president-jailed-for-corruption/ Thu, 01 Jun 2023 17:26:34 +0000 https://www.adomonline.com/?p=2255785 Brazil’s supreme court voted on Wednesday to sentence former President Fernando Collor de Mello to 8 years and 10 months in prison on corruption and money laundering charges.

The Brazilian prosecutor’s office accused Collor, 73, of having received around 30 million reais ($6 million) in bribes from a subsidiary of state-run oil company Petrobras (PETR4.SA).

The top court convicted the former senator in mid-May, but justices had still to decide on his sentence, which he can appeal.

Collor was a dashing, liberalizing politician who became Brazil’s first democratically elected president in 1989 after a two-decade military dictatorship, but he resigned three years later after the lower house of Congress impeached him.

A rakish, dynastic heir with a penchant for expensive sports cars, Collor was one of Brazil’s original free-marketeers who oposed Brazil’s entrenched protectionism and sought to privatize state-run firms in his curtailed presidency.

He continued in politics and later served 26 years as a conservative senator for the northeastern state of Alagoas, where his well-to-do family was from. He chaired the foreign relations committee He lost his seat in last year’s elections.

Collor himself could not immediately be reached for comment.

In a note released by the time of his conviction, his defense lawyers said Collor did “not commit any crime” and expressed confidence that he would ultimately be exonerated.

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