On Thursday local time, the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil issued an arrest warrant for former President Fernando Collor. On Friday morning, the Brazilian police arrested the 75 - year - old former president at the airport in the northeastern city of Maceió, commencing his prison term of 8 years and 10 months.
Collor was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1949. Hailing from a political family, following in the footsteps of his father, Senator Arnon de Melo, he launched his political career in the northeastern state of Alagoas. He served as the mayor of Maceió, a federal deputy, and in the 1980s, he was the governor of Alagoas. When Brazil decided to end its 20 - year military dictatorship and return to democracy, he participated in the first election and emerged victorious, becoming Brazil's first democratically elected president. He defeated his opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the leader of the Workers' Party, and took office in March 1990. However, it wasn't long before he was betrayed by his brother.
His brother, Pedro Collor, claimed that during the presidential campaign, the president's finance chief, Farias, had orchestrated the establishment of secret funds accounts to accept bribes in exchange for selling high - level positions in the new government. A congressional investigation later confirmed that Farias had managed offshore accounts worth up to $1 billion for Collor and his wife's personal expenses. In December 1992, Collor was impeached and forced to resign due to corruption and dereliction of duty, becoming the first president to be impeached and removed from office. In 1996, his finance chief was shot and killed in a villa in Maceió, and no one has been held accountable for this to date. In 2006, Collor returned to public office and was elected to the Senate, serving two consecutive terms of eight years as a senator.
In 2014, Brazilian media reported publicly that the senior executives of several large enterprises, including Petrobras, were involved in collective crimes. They established engineering companies in Brazil and South American countries, using their power to promote high - priced projects and accepting bribes in the process. Subsequently, the Brazilian police launched a large - scale operation named "Car Wash Operation" to investigate systematic corruption among senior officials in the Brazilian political and business circles. Many former and current government officials were indicted and sentenced, and Collor was also implicated.
According to the court's accusation, the former president received approximately 20 million reais in bribes during his tenure as a senator from 2010 to 2014 to ensure that the construction company UTC Engenharia could undertake a fuel distribution facility project of BR Distribuidora, a former subsidiary of Petrobras. In 2023, the Brazilian Supreme Court convicted Collor of corruption and sentenced him to 8 years and 10 months in prison. Subsequently, Collor has been appealing in accordance with the legal process to delay the implementation of the sentence.
On April 24 local time, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ruled to reject the appeal filed by former President Fernando Collor and ordered his immediate arrest, requiring him to begin serving his sentence. In February this year, another former Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, was also accused of allegedly plotting a coup to overthrow the Brazilian government in early 2023 and is under investigation. If convicted, he could face 40 years in prison, and the case is currently under trial and investigation.
