This is Brazil by the Numbers, a weekly digest of the most interesting figures tucked inside the latest news about Brazil. Random numbers that help explain what is going on in Brazil. This week: Lula’s sentence extended, Brazil’s currency slump, volunteers freed in Amazon fire case, AIDS reductions, football bigwig banned, and the cost of doing business in Brazil.
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17 years, 1 month and 10 days
On Wednesday, the appellate judges of a federal appellate court ruled to uphold the conviction of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the corruption case concerning a ranch house in rural São Paulo. Moreover, the panel of three justices decided to extend Lula’s sentence, from 12 years and 11 months in jail for passive corruption and money laundering, to 17 years, 1 month and 10 days.
The decision does not affect the former president’s legal situation, however, and he will remain at liberty. A recent Supreme Court decision determined that prison sentences may only be executed after defendants receive a final and unappealable conviction, which saw Lula released from jail, having served 580 days of another corruption sentence—this time for receiving a beachfront apartment as a “favor” for benefitting construction companies.
The decision was widely criticized by legal pundits, as the judges disobeyed another recent Supreme Court ruling stating that defendants who are accused by other defendants must provide their closing arguments last—which did not occur in Lula’s case. The judges claimed that the former president’s defense was not compromised by the order of proceedings. Some claimed the members of the TRF4 were using the media attention of the trial to gesture toward...
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