{"id":73,"date":"2016-09-21T12:16:51","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T12:16:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/?p=73"},"modified":"2016-09-23T03:36:22","modified_gmt":"2016-09-23T03:36:22","slug":"brazils-ex-president-lula-to-be-tried-for-corruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2016\/09\/21\/brazils-ex-president-lula-to-be-tried-for-corruption\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazil’s Ex-President Lula to be tried for Corruption"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BBC NEWS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will stand trial on corruption and money laundering charges over an alleged scheme at the state oil company, Petrobras, a judge has said.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors say he accepted 3.7m reais ($1.11m; \u00a3867,000) in bribes connected to the multi-billion dollar scheme.<\/p>\n

Lula, 70, had already been charged in August with allegedly obstructing investigations.<\/a><\/p>\n

He denies any wrongdoing<\/a> and says the accusations are politically motivated.<\/p>\n

“I am sad,” Lula said. “It is a big farce, a big lie, a big pyrotechnic show.<\/p>\n

“What’s happening isn’t getting me down, but just motivates me to go out and talk more.”<\/p>\n

Judge Sergio Moro, who is overseeing Operation Car Wash, the investigation into corruption allegations at Petrobras, said there was “sufficient evidence of [Lula’s] responsibility”.<\/p>\n

The money that the ex-president allegedly received was laundered through the purchase and renovation of a beach apartment, prosecutors say.<\/p>\n

The flat was built by a construction company implicated in the scandal.<\/p>\n

His wife, Marisa Leticia, and six others have also been indicted.<\/p>\n

Lula was accused by prosecutors of being the “boss” of the scheme, estimated to have cost the company more than $2bn (\u00a31.5bn).<\/p>\n

Several politicians and Petrobras executives have been arrested and sentenced as a result of the two-year inquiry.<\/p>\n

Investigators believe overpriced contracts with Petrobras were given in return for bribes.<\/p>\n

Some of the illicitly-obtained money was used to finance the electoral campaign of top Brazilian politicians, they allege.<\/p>\n

Lula, who served as president between 2003 and 2011, was one of Brazil’s most popular leaders and is seen as a possible candidate for the 2018 presidential elections.<\/p>\n

However, the popularity of his Workers’ Party plummeted this year and his chosen successor Dilma Rousseff was impeached<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n

A criminal conviction would bar him from running in 2018.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BBC NEWS: Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will stand trial on corruption and money laundering charges over an alleged scheme at the state oil company, Petrobras, a judge has said. Prosecutors say he accepted 3.7m reais ($1.11m; \u00a3867,000) in bribes connected to the multi-billion dollar scheme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions\/107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}