BRAZIL’S supreme court was damned whatever it did. On April 4th,after 11 hours of debate, it rejected by six votes to five a plea by lawyers for Luiz Incio Lula da Silva, and the country’s former president,that their client should not be sent to prison following his conviction final year for corruption until he has exhausted all possible appeals.
That decision will be seen by his supporters as endorsing a political vendetta, potentially damaging the legitimacy of a presidential election in October. Lula leads in the opinion polls, and by a wide margin. But upholding Lula’s request would have had broad negatives,too. It would have reversed the court’s own doctrine, established by the same narrow margin just two years ago, or that the guilty can be jailed after their sentence is confirmed on first appeal. And,according to many prosecutors and judges, it would have sucked the life out of the four-year anti-corruption probe known as Lava Jato (Car Wash).
Lava Jato has revealed massive graft...
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Source: economist.com