Considered as one of the most popular presidents of Brazil in its history, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been sentenced to exactly nine years and six months in prison. The latest reports were saying that he has been found guilty of corruption and money-laundering acts.
Even if he was sentenced to almost ten years, Lula will remain free as he has pending appeal while his supporters were denouncing the sentence as a mere political prosecution. The recent ruling on the former president of Brazil just marked a fall for another leader whom Obama considered before as the most popular politician in the world.
Lula came from the leftist Workers' Party before serving as president of Brazil. And after becoming the head of the country, he also helped Dilma Rousseff win two elections prior to her impeachment last year due to breaking budget rules.
Regarding the case of Brazil's former president, according to New York Times, Judge Sergio Moro claimed that Lula played a part in the corruption scheme wherein billions of dollars were given as compensations to executives, middlemen, and politicians using fat contracts. Apart from his sentence, he ill faces four more trials in which defense lawyers said will consist of the rules in order to prevent from returning to politics.
According to a professor of political science at Insper, the sentence on Lula can be considered as very heavy not only for him but for the entire Brazil as well. The professor claimed that the country is greatly affected since people have voted not just twice for him but even twice for the candidate he greatly supported.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva came from an ordinary family into the barefoot poverty in Brazil. Moreover, he ran the metal workers' union prior to helping the Workers' party with his fellow unionists and intellectuals way back 1980s.
Before becoming the president of Brazil by winning two mandates last 2002, Lula first lost three elections. His governance was mostly credited due to transformative social policies and an improved economy for Brazil. It was even claimed that millions of people in the country escaped from poverty during his presidency.
