Brazilian court rejects Lula s request to avoid prison

Brasilia Jan 31 (IANS) The Brazilian Supreme Court of Justice has rejected a motion by the defence team of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to avoid his arrest for a graft conviction that was upheld last week.

Justice Humberto Martins denied the request filed on Tuesday in a statement published on the court s website saying such petitions are only applicable when there is a "concrete threat of imminent imprisonment".

Judges said the former President should be arrested as soon as the court explains details of the ruling to the defence a process that usually takes a month Xinhua news agency reported.

Lula who was Brazil s President from 2003 to 2011 was found guilty of corruption and money laundering last year.

Earlier a three-judge panel of a Brazilian appeals court voted unanimously to ratify his conviction and to extend his original sentence from nine and a half years in prison to 12 years.

Under the country s law a convict can be put into jail following verdicts from the second trial even if he still has the right to appeal for a final judgement.

According to Lula s defence team imprisoning the former President before the final judgment is a violation to the presumption of innocence.

Moreover given that Lula is the frontrunner for this year s October presidential election the early imprisonment would damage the democratic process in the country they claimed.

A federal judge on Monday ordered the public auction of a beachfront apartment allegedly used to bribe the former President in exchange for his help with engineering company OAS to get contracts from state oil company Petrobras.

However Lula s team argued there was no evidence that linked him to the promise of receiving the apartment where he never lived and visited only once.

--IANS
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