A sharply divided Brazilian Supreme Federal Tribunal yesterday voted to reject an attempt by former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to stay out of jail while he appeals a corruption conviction, delivering a hard blow to the front-running candidate in this year’s presidential election in Latin America’s largest nation.
After nearly 13 hours of often heated debate, the Supreme Federal Tribunal voted 6-5 to deny Lula’s request to stave off a 12-year prison sentence while he fights a conviction that he has always argued was nothing more than a ploy to keep him off of the October ballot.
Despite the conviction and several other corruption charges against him, Lula leads all preference polls for the election.
Photo: AP
The decision means that Lula would likely soon be jailed, though probably not until at least next week.
Chief Justice Carmen Lucia, who was sharply criticized during the session by various colleagues, cast the deciding vote after the court was tied at 5-5.
“The constitution secures individual rights, which are fundamental to democracy, but it also assures the exercise of criminal law,” she said.
Justice Gilmar Mendes, traditionally a critic of Lula, voted in favor of the former president’s petition to stay out of jail, challenging his colleagues to buck pressure from society.
“If a court bows [to pressure], it might as well not exist,” Mendes said.
Justice Luis Roberto Barroso argued that the integrity of the justice system was at stake.
“A penal system that doesn’t work with minimal effectiveness leads to an instinct for taking justice into one’s own hands,” Barroso said in voting against Lula.
Justice Rosa Weber, who legal analysts said was key because there was much doubt about her position on the matter, voted against Lula.
In one of several brisk exchanges, after Weber’s vote, Justice Marco Aurelio Mello accused Lucia of plotting against Lula’s case.
Limiting the vote just to the habeas corpus petition and not the larger question of when a convicted person should be forced to begin serving a sentence helped sway Weber’s vote, Mello said.
“I want this to be registered in the court’s records,” Mello told Lucia, who responded by saying “yes” to the request.
When the decision was delivered, fireworks and yells could be heard and seen in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, two of the nation’s most important cities.
On the eve of the session that began on Wednesday afternoon, the nation’s army commander raised eyebrows with tweets subtly supporting Lula’s incarceration.
General Eduardo Villas Boas on Tuesday posted two tweets that many interpreted as a form of pressure on the 11 justices on the Supreme Federal Tribunal and a veiled threat of intervention.
“In Brazil’s current situation, it’s worth asking our institutions and the people who is really thinking about what is best for the country and future generations, and who is only worried about their personal interests?” Villas Boas wrote in one tweet.
In a second tweet, Boas wrote that he shared people’s anxiousness and “repudiated impunity.”
O Globo criticized the comments, saying in an editorial that a military chief should “not be opining over judicial and political questions.”
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source