Brazil’s Lula to stand trial for corruption

The crusading judge behind the Petrobras investigation, Sergio Mora, accepted charges filed last week by prosecutors investigating Lula – making him the highest-profile figure to face trial in a case that has taken down some of the country’s most powerful business executives and politicians. “Given that there is sufficient evidence of (Lula’s) responsibility... I accept the charges,” Moro said in his decision. The charges allege that Lula, 70, received the equivalent of 3.7 million reais (USD 1.1 million) in bribes. Among the accusations are charges that the former union leader and his wife received a beachside apartment and upgrades to the property from a major construction company, OAS, which was one of the players in the Petrobras scheme. More broadly, prosecutors last week singled out Lula – who was president during much of the time that Petrobras was being fleeced of billions of dollars – as the scheme’s “supreme commander.”