SAO PAULO (AP) — A Brazilian judge ruled Thursday that former President Fernando Collor can serve his sentence from a 2023 corruption conviction under house arrest instead of prison because of his poor health.
Collor had been arrested late last week and ordered to begin serving eight years and 10 months in prison. But on Thursday, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes accepted a defense request for house arrest because of the former leader’s advanced age of 75 and deteriorating health.
Collor’s lawyers said that he suffers from Parkinson’s disease, severe sleep apnea and bipolar disorder.
Collor, who led the country from 1990 to 1992, had been convicted of receiving 20 million reais ($3.5 million) to facilitate contracts between a state company and a private firm for the construction of fuel depots.
He remained out of prison as his lawyers continued to lodge appeals. But he was arrested April 24 in the northeastern state of Alagoas, where he lives, on a warrant that said the start of his sentence was overdue.
Under the Brazilian legal system, cases concerning presidents, Cabinet ministers and members of Congress go directly to the Supreme Court.
The case stemmed from the Operation Car Wash, a sweeping corruption probe that has implicated top politicians and businesspeople across Latin America — including current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was arrested in 2018 and imprisoned for nearly two years.
Collor, 75, was the first Brazilian president elected by popular vote, in 1989, after a 21-year military dictatorship.
He was impeached and removed from office by Congress in 1992 following corruption allegations. In 2007, he was elected as a senator representing his home state of Alagoas in northeastern Brazil.
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