Brazil's Supreme Court Rejects Appeal To Release Ex-President Lula From Jail - Reports

MEXICO CITY (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th June, 2019) Brazil's Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by lawyers of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is currently in prison on corruption charges, to release the ex-president from jail, local media reported.

According to Globo news portal, the court ruled in a 3-to-2 vote to delay a decision until August.

Lula's lawyers are trying to challenge the work Sergio Moro, the former judge, who convicted Lula, and who now serves as President Jair Bolsonaro's justice minister. In recent weeks Moro has come under pressure to resign due to leaked private messages showing that he was not impartial while convicting the ex-president.

In July 2017, Lula, who used to rule the country from 2003 to 2010, was sentenced to 9.5 years in prison for corruption, which he appealed. An appeals court increased the sentence up to 12 years and one month in January 2018, and in April 2018, the ex-president started serving his term in the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba.

In late April, Brazil's court reduced Lula's prison term from 12 years and one month to eight years and 10 months, with the possibility of being moved to house arrest later this year.