SAO PAULO, Brazil — Brazil’s former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will respond on Thursday to prosecutors’ charges that he masterminded a massive corruption scheme at state oil company Petrobras.
Lula, who was one of the most popular presidents in Brazilian history, was due to give a press conference at 1:00 p.m. (1600 GMT) in Sao Paulo, a day after federal prosecutors filed corruption charges against him and his wife.
The charges allege that he received the equivalent of 3.7 million reais ($1.1 million) in bribes and was the ringleader of a sprawling pay-to-play system whose discovery has upended Brazilian politics just as the country suffers its worst recession in 80 years.
Lula, a former shoeshine boy and steelworker who remains a hero to many poor Brazilians, presided over eight years of prosperity (2003-2011) during which tens of millions of people escaped poverty.
The gravelly-voiced, charismatic leftist is still seen as potential come-back material in Brazil — or was until recently.
Polls show the founder of the leftist Workers’ Party to be a favorite for returning to power in the next presidential elections in 2018.
But his political project is in turmoil after his hand-picked successor, Dilma Rousseff, was removed from office last month in a bitter impeachment battle, replaced by her center-right vice president-turned-nemesis, Michel Temer.
Rousseff was convicted by the Senate on unrelated charges of accounting irregularities, but is broadly seen to be paying the price for the Petrobras scandal and the recession.
Among the allegations are that Lula and his wife, former first lady Marisa Leticia Lula da Silva, 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.
The allegations are not new but they now go before Judge Sergio Moro, head of the Petrobras investigation, who will decide whether to accept them, forcing Lula’s case to trial.
Prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol singled out Lula — who was president during much of the time that Petrobras was being systematically fleeced by a network of corrupt executives and politicians — as the scheme’s “supreme commander.”
Lula, 70, has repeatedly declared his innocence and says that the prosecution is politically motivated.
His attorney called the allegations “farcical.”
In the scheme, Petrobras, Brazil’s biggest state company, gave over-inflated contracts to other big firms, such as OAS and construction rival Odebrecht.
The network also involved high-ranking politicians who took bribes from the contractors, sometimes for their own gain and sometimes to fill party coffers to fund election campaigns.
Dozens of politicians and some of Brazil’s richest businessmen have been charged or convicted.
The judicial campaign is hugely popular among Brazilians fed up with runaway corruption.
The fallout has been widespread.
Several close allies of Temer, the new president, are now being investigated by Petrobras prosecutors.
The most concrete case against Lula has been based on his alleged ownership of a seaside apartment, which OAS reportedly gave him and renovated.
Last month, police initiated the case against Lula, saying he had received benefits worth 2.4 million reals or about $743,000.
Lula has railed against accusations that he could have been part of the corruption feeding trough.
He was hailed internationally for social welfare policies that helped fight centuries of deep-rooted inequality in Brazil.
He also was key in Rio de Janeiro’s winning bid to host South America’s first Olympics, which finished on August 21.
But his legacy and power base are rapidly crumbling.
Even the Workers’ Party, which dominated Brazilian politics for 13 years, is now in peril.
A conviction would dash Lula’s hopes of running for a third term in office in the 2018 elections.
He has already been charged with attempting to obstruct investigations in the Petrobras case, a probe dubbed “Operation Carwash.”
