The former President of Brazil, Fernando Collor de Mello, was arrested and taken to prison to begin serving a nearly nine-year sentence for corruption and money laundering on Friday, April 25, 2025.
Collor de Mello, Brazil’s first democratically elected president after a decades-long dictatorship, resigned in 1992 after Congress launched impeachment proceedings against him for allegedly taking bribes.
His arrest stems from a conviction over bribes taken two decades later while a senator, part of the sprawling “Car Wash” corruption scandal.
The 75-year-old was detained in Maceio city in northeastern Alagoas state, where he served as a senator and governor, a federal police source told AFP.
In 2023, Collor de Mello was found guilty of having received 20 million reais ($3.5 million dollars) in bribes while a senator between 2010 and 2014 to “irregularly facilitate contracts” between a construction company and a former subsidiary of Brazil’s state oil company Petrobras.
On Thursday, Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes rejected Collor de Mello’s last-gasp efforts to have the arrest order annulled.
‘Vladimir, stop!’: Trump tells Putin as Russian missiles kill 12, injure 90 in Ukraine
His lawyers told local media the arrest came as he was about to travel to the capital Brasilia to turn himself in.
Moraes ordered he be incarcerated in an individual cell in a “special wing” of Baldomero Cavalcanti de Oliveira prison in Maceio.
His lawyers said they would seek permission for him to serve his sentence under house arrest.
Collor de Mello is not Brazil’s first president to fall foul of the law.
Four of the seven people who have led the country since the 1964-1985 military dictatorship have either been convicted, jailed or impeached.
In the latest case, far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro has been ordered to stand trial over an alleged coup plot after losing the 2022 election.
While recovering in hospital this week from intestinal surgery, a court official handed the 70-year-old a summons giving him five days to submit his initial defense.
Three persons have been confirmed dead, while six others were injured in an accident involving…
Troops of the Nigerian Army have neutralised 45 suspected bandits, including a top commander known…
The United States has imposed visa restrictions on several Rwandan officials accused of supporting the…
United States President Donald Trump has demanded Iran's "unconditional surrender" as war in the Middle…
Liverpool moved into the FA Cup quarter-finals with a 3-1 win against Wolves on Friday…
Venezuelan inflation soared to 475 per cent in 2025, the highest in the world, driven…
This website uses cookies.