Brazil’s top court: Da Silva will be jailed during appeal

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s top court voted narrowly in the early hours Thursday to turn down an attempt by former President Luiz Inacio da Silva to stay out of jail while he appeals a corruption conviction, a decision that will have widespread implications in this polarized nation.

After nearly 11 hours of often heated debate, the justices of the Supreme Federal Tribunal voted 6-5 to deny da Silva’s preventative habeas corpus request to stave off a 12-year jail sentence while he fights a conviction in a case that he argues was nothing more than a ploy to keep him off of October’s presidential ballot.

Despite the conviction and several other corruption charges pending against him, da Silva leads all preference polls for the election. The decision means he will likely be jailed soon, though probably not until at least next week thanks to various technicalities.

Within minutes of the decision, da Silva’s Workers’ Party, which held Brazil’s presidency from 2003 to 2016, put out a tweet that foreshadowed the struggles to come.

“The Brazilian people have the right to vote for Lula, the candidate of hope,” it read. “The Workers’ Party will defend this candidacy on the streets and in every court until the last consequences.”

The court’s debate underscored how fraught the matter is at a time of high tension and angst in Brazil, which is struggling to emerge from a crippling recession and is four years into a major corruption scandal that has ensnared much of the country’s elite, including da Silva.

“The constitution secures individual rights, which are fundamental to democracy, but it also assures the exercise of criminal law,” said Chief Justice Carmen Lucia, who cast the deciding vote after spending much of the session being criticized by colleagues.

Da Silva was convicted in July of helping a construction company get sweetheart contracts in exchange for the promise of a beachfront apartment. He denies any wrongdoing in that case or in several other corruption cases that have yet to be tried.