More than three decades since he stepped down in disgrace over a colossal corruption scandal, Brazil’s ex-President Fernando Collor de Mello was imprisoned to nine-year corruption and money laundering conviction.
Collor, 75, was taken into custody early on Friday in Maceió, capital of the state of Alagoas, as he traveled to Brasília to turn himself in. He was arrested on orders of Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who dismissed the final appeals of the former president against a 2023 conviction. Collor has been sentenced to eight years and 10 months in prison.
The former president, the first democratically elected president since Brazil’s military dictatorship, now joins a list of Brazilian former presidents who have been part of the country’s long history of corruption spectacles.
Late Thursday evening, Collor’s attorneys indicated they were “surprised and concerned” by the decision and argued the arrest should have been up to the full Supreme Court, not a single justice. The other justices on the court are set to vote remotely on Friday to affirm or deny Moraes’s order.
Collor’s statement is the result of allegations that he received 20 million reais (approximately $3.5 million USD) in bribes from companies connected with the Brazilian petroleum industry. The money laundering and corruption accusations cement Collor’s fall into infamy—an arc that began with his record-breaking 1989 election victory over then-labor leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Though Collor arrived in 1990 promising across-the-board reform and economic stabilisation, his presidency was early on embroiled in crisis. In 1992, after being charged with corruption by his own brother, Collor was the object of massive protest and impeachment motions. He attempted to cut them short by quitting in December that year but was nevertheless disqualified for eight years from holding public office.
Despite his early fall from power, Collor made a political resurgence, serving as a senator between 2007 and 2023. He made the unsuccessful gubernatorial bid in Alagoas in 2022.
Collor is not alone in facing legal consequences following the presidency. Brazil’s democratic history has lately been marked by ex-presidents being indicted for corruption, imprisoned, or both.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva—whom Collor beat in 1989—was imprisoned in 2018 on corruption and money laundering charges and spent 580 days in prison before the Supreme Court overturned his convictions. Lula was restored to the presidency in 2023.
Former President Michel Temer also spent a few nights in prison in 2019 after being detained on corruption charges, which he denied. Most recently, Jair Bolsonaro is facing a possible trial on charges of trying to stage a coup after his 2022 election defeat to Lula. A Supreme Court panel voted unanimously in March to approve criminal charges against him.
