Collor de Mello, Brazil’s first democratically elected president after a decades-long dictatorship, resigned in 1992 after Congress launched impeachment proceedings against him for allegedly taking bribes.
He was arrested years later. His arrest was informed by the alleged bribes taken two decades later while he was serving as a senator, which was part of the sprawling “Car Wash” corruption scandal.
The 75-year-old was detained in Maceio city in northeastern Alagoas state, where he served as a senator and governor, after his exit as president.
In 2023, Collor de Mello was found guilty of having received 20 million reais (3.5 million dollars) in bribes while a senator between 2010 and 2014 to “irregularly facilitate contracts” between a construction company and a former subsidiary of Brazil’s state oil company Petrobras.
On Thursday, 24th April, 2025, the country's Supreme Court justice, Alexandre de Moraes rejected Collor de Mello’s last-gasp efforts to have his arrest order annulled.
Moraes ordered he be incarcerated in an individual cell in a “special wing” of Baldomero Cavalcanti de Oliveira prison in Maceio.
His lawyers told local media that the arrest came as he was about to travel to the capital Brasilia to turn himself in.
His lawyers said they would seek permission for him to serve his sentence under house arrest.
It's noteworthy that Collor de Mello is not Brazil’s first president to fall foul of the law.
Four of the seven people who have led the country since the 1964-1985 military dictatorship had either been convicted, jailed or impeached.
In the latest case, far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro has been ordered to stand trial over an alleged coup plot after losing the 2022 election.
While recovering in hospital this week from intestinal surgery, a court official handed the 70-year-old a summons giving him five days to submit his initial defence.
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