BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazil’s Supreme Court overturned racketeering convictions against former leaders of the ruling Workers Party yesterday, reducing their prison sentences in the country’s biggest political corruption case.
The 6-5 ruling does not affect other convictions for corruption and money-laundering in the congressional vote-buying scandal that almost toppled party leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from the presidency in 2005.
“This is a sad day for this Supreme Court,” said a disheartened Chief Justice Joaquim Barbosa, who became a household name in Brazil for his pursuit of convictions in the so-called mensalao, or big monthly payments, case.
The 2012 trial was seen as a landmark in a country with a long history of corruption where political leaders had never gone to jail for bribery or embezzlement of public funds. Twenty-five people were convicted.
Lula was never implicated in the scheme that involved monthly payments to lawmakers in exchange for support in Congress for his minority first government.
The court ruling that the racketeering convictions lacked proof was welcomed as “just” by the Worker’s Party.
