'Lula' Corruption Charges Dismissed; Could Run Again in Brazil

By Mary Anne Webber First Posted: Mar 09, 2021 02:58 AM EST

A Supreme Court judge in Brazil on Monday dismissed the corruption cases against former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, restoring his rights to run again for office in 2022.

Lula spent 18 months in jail and was freed in 2019 after being convicted in a huge corruption scandal linking him to politicians and business leaders. The case was dubbed "Operation Car Wash."

BBC reported that the Supreme Court ruling restores Lula's political rights unless his convictions are reinstated.

According to Justice Edson Fachin, a court in the southern city of Curitiba lacked the authority to try Lula on corruption charges. Fachin added that the former president of Brazil must be retried in federal courts in the capital Brasilia.

Lula's Involvement in Operation Car Wash

The operation was launched in March 2014, with an initial target on agents called doleiros or black-market money dealers.

These agents used small businesses, such as petrol stations and car washes, to launder money that came from crime. Police then found out during the investigation that they were on to something bigger.

Police discovered that the doleiros were working on behalf of Paulo Roberto Costa, the former director of refining and supply at the massive state-owned oil company Petrobras.

Costa talked about how he and other Petrobras directors had been deliberately overpaying on contracts with various companies for office construction, drilling rigs, refineries, and exploration vessels, The Guardian reported.

The contractors they were paying formed a deal to make sure they were guaranteed business on very lucrative terms if they agreed to divert a share of between one and five percent of every agreement into secret slush funds.

After funneling millions into those funds, Petrobras directors then used them to channel money to the politicians that appointed them or to political parties they represented.

Lula, the president of Brazil from 2003 to 2010, was jailed for money laundering after he allegedly received an apartment from an engineering company implicated in the Operation Car Wash investigation.

Lula, now 75, denied all the charges. He said they were aimed at preventing him from running in the 2018 presidential election.

The corruption investigation was considered to be one of the biggest scandals in the history of Latin America. It also threw Brazil into a political crisis, according to a WIon News report.

Lula in Politics

Lula was the president of Brazil from 2003 to 2013. He was forecasted to run against President Jair Bolsonaro, who is the right-wing candidate likely to seek re-election next year.

Bolsonaro accused the Supreme Court judge of bias. He added that he hoped the decision would be overturned when the full Supreme Court reviewed it, according to a Reuters report.

Bolsonaro also commented on the possibility of Lula running again for the presidency, saying he does not believe that Brazilians wanted Lula to run next year.

Meanwhile, a financial analyst said the possibility of Lula's candidacy would drive Bolsonaro to leave economic reforms he ran on in 2018.

"With Lula eligible, the chance of this current government going totally towards populism increases even more," Alfredo Menezes, managing partner at Armor Capital, said in the report.

WATCH: Brazil: Supreme Court Judge Clears Lula of Corruption Charges - From WION