Former Brazilian president Fernando Collor de Mello delivers a speech during the debate on suspending and impeaching President Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia, on May 11, 2016.EVARISTO SA/AFP/Getty Images
Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes rejected former Brazilian President Fernando Collor de Mello’s challenges against a previous conviction and ordered his immediate arrest, a court decision showed on Thursday.
The order comes after the Supreme Court in 2023 sentenced Collor, the first president to win the popular vote after the end of Brazil’s last military dictatorship in 1985, to eight years and 10 months in prison on corruption and money laundering charges.
Collor’s legal defence showed “surprise and concern” by Moraes decision, his lawyer said in a statement, adding the former president will however comply with the order.
Moraes requested a session with the full Supreme Court to decide whether to uphold or reject his decision.
The 2023 conviction followed Brazilian prosecutor’s office accusation that Collor received around 30 million reais ($5.28 million) in bribes from a then subsidiary of state-run oil company Petrobras.
Collor took office as president in 1990, but did not finish his term as Congress decided to impeach him two years later amid a separate corruption scandal, from which Supreme Court acquitted him in 1994. He later was elected senator.