Legal woes of Brazilian presidents past and present

Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro pray on a truck with a banner reading 'Come back, Bolsonaro' and a cardboard of Bolsonaro near his house in Brasilia on September 11, 2025. [AFP] Brazil's ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, who has been sentenced to 27 years in prison on charges of plotting a coup, is the latest leader of Latin America's biggest economy to face justice. Unlike his predecessors, most of whom were charged with corruption, he was found guilty of trying to subvert Brazil's democracy. Four other presidents who led Brazil since the return of democracy after the country's 1964-1985 military dictatorship have been either convicted, jailed, or impeached. Here is a recap of their cases: Fernando Collor de Mello Brazil's first democratically elected president was forced to resign halfway through his term after Congress launched impeachment proceedings against him for allegedly taking bribes. The centre-right Collor returned to politics in 2006 as a senator, only to be caught up in the sweeping "Car Wash" graft scandal. He was sentenced in 2023 to eight years and 10 months in prison for taking bribes in exchange for negotiating contracts between a construction company and a subsidiary of state-run oil company Petrobras. He was arrested in April this year and is now serving his sentence under house arrest. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Lula) The veteran leftwinger, who served two terms as president between 2003 and 2010, and defeated Bolsonaro in 2022 to win a third, was also convicted as part of the "Car Wash" mega-probe. He spent 580 days in prison between April 2018 and November 2019 for bribery and money laundering relating to a seaside apartment he owned. Investigators accused the former labor leader of having received the apartment as a bribe from a construction company that won government tenders. His conviction was later overturned by the Supreme Court, which found that the trial court judge had been biased in his handling of the case, among other issues. The quashing of his conviction paved the way for him to pull off a remarkable political comeback. Dilma Rousseff Lula's hand-picked successor, who was elected Brazil's first female president in 2010, was impeached by Congress in 2016 on charges of taking unauthorized loans to fudge holes in the government's accounts. She denied any wrongdoing, saying previous administrations did the same. Before her impeachment, hundreds of thousands of Brazilians took to the streets calling for her departure over her handling of a recession and corruption in the ruling Workers' Party. Brazil's left called the impeachment a parliamentary "coup." Rousseff said it smacked of misogyny. Michel Temer Rousseff was succeeded by her centrist deputy Michel Temer, who was also caught up in the "Car Wash" probe. Congress voted twice against putting him on trial for corruption. After leaving power, he was jailed twice in 2019 for obstruction of justice but was released within a few days on both occasions.

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Legal woes of Brazilian presidents past and present

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