The former leader was detained on Friday at 4am (07:00 GMT), according to Collor’s attorney Marcelo Bessa, while visiting Brasilia, where he planned to surrender himself following the arrest order from Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
According to a statement from Bessa, the 75-year-old politician was being detained by federal police in the state’s capital, Maceio, in northeastern Maceio.
The top court sentenced Collor, the country’s first military dictatorship, to eight years and 10 months in prison in 2023 on corruption and money-laundering charges, following the top court’s ruling on Thursday.
Collor’s attorney already had an opinion on the matter in an , initial , statement , released late on Thursday, but added that the former president would comply with the order.
Following the prosecution’s claim that Collor had received $ 30 million in bribes from a then-subsidiary of the state-run oil company Petrobras, Brazilian authorities were convicted in 2023.
Collor was elected president in 1990, but he did not succeed him as president until after the Supreme Court found him not guilty in 1994 when Congress impeached him two years later.
In the end, he was elected to the Alagoas state as a senator.
He unsuccessfully applied for governor of Alagoas, so he abruptly left Congress in early 2023.
Brazil’s first president has not broken the law, according to Collor de Mello.
Since the military dictatorship of 1964-1985, four of the nation’s seven presidents have either been found guilty, imprisoned, or imprisoned.
Source: Aljazeera
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