Judges Uphold Lula's Graft Conviction, Scrambling Brazilian Presidential Race

January 24, 2018 12:31 PM ET

Updated at 2 p.m. ET

A courtroom decision in Porto Alegre, Brazil, promises a vast impact on ballot boxes across that country later this year. It is there, in the southeastern coastal city, that a three-judge panel upheld former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's corruption conviction.

Two of the three judges voted Wednesday to uphold the conviction and increase Lula's prison sentence — from the original ruling of nine and a half years to just over 12. The final judge on the panel is voting later in the day.

"I consider the culpability in the case extremely high," Gebran Neto said Wednesday, according to The Associated Press. "This is about a former president and a corruption scheme that prevailed for years."

Da Silva, a 72-year-old leftist politician commonly known simply as "Lula," was convicted last July on charges ranging from money laundering to accepting more than $1 million in kickbacks. Central to those charges was the allegation that he accepted a beachfront apartment in return for boosting the prospects of Petrobras, Brazil's state-run oil company, in its pursuit of government contracts.

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