A Brazilian federal judge on Tuesday confirmed that the country’s charismatic former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will face trial for corruption linked to the infamous Petrobras corruption scandal, according to Reuters.
Last Thursday prosecutors had accused the man popularly known as Lula of being the brains at the top of the multibillion-dollar bribes-for-inflated-contracts scandal.
Lula is accused of accepting $1.14m in bribes including the gift of a beachfront property from OAS, an engineering firm deeply embroiled in the Petrobras affair.
Petrobras is Brazil’s state oil firm and has extensive offshore drilling interests. It is the world’s most indebted oil company.
Judge Sergio Moro on Tuesday accepted the allegations put forward last week by prosecutors as constituting grounds for a trial.
Lula’s wife Marisa Leticia Lula da Silva is among seven others who will be tried with Lula.
Numerous Petrobras executives, officials from contractor companies and leading politicians (especially of Lula’s Workers Party) have been exposed and faced charges in the graft scheme but Lula’s is the biggest name of all.
