Brazil's top court sentences former president Collor to prison

Fernando Collor de Mello to serve nearly nine years in prison on corruption and money laundering charges

Former Brazilian president Fernando Collor de Mello. AFP

Brazil's supreme court has sentenced former president Fernando Collor de Mello to eight years and 10 months in prison on corruption and money laundering charges.

The Brazilian prosecutor's office accused Collor, 73, of having received about 30 million reals ($6 million) in bribes from a subsidiary of state-run oil company Petrobras.

The top court convicted him in mid-May, but justices on Wednesday decided on his sentence, which he can appeal.

Collor was a dashing, liberalising politician who became Brazil's first democratically elected president in 1989 after a two-decade military dictatorship, but he resigned three years later after the lower house of Congress impeached him.

With a penchant for expensive sports cars, Collor was one of Brazil's original free-marketeers who opposed Brazil's entrenched protectionism and sought to privatise state-run companies during his curtailed presidency.

He continued in politics and later served 26 years as a conservative senator for the north-eastern state of Alagoas, where his well-to-do family was from. He lost his seat in last year's elections.

Collor himself could not immediately be reached for comment. In a note released by the time of his conviction, his defence lawyers said Collor did “not commit any crime” and expressed confidence that he would ultimately be exonerated.