Former Brazilian President Fernando Collor de Mello has been detained following a ruling from the country’s highest court that upheld his prison sentence for corruption and money laundering.
The decision, announced on Friday, April 25, 2025, signifies another significant development in Brazil’s ongoing battle against political corruption at the highest echelons of government.
Collor, who was Brazil’s first democratically elected president after the end of military rule, received a sentence of nearly nine years in prison.
The 75-year-old politician was apprehended in Brazil’s northeastern region, as confirmed by a police source who spoke to AFP on the condition of anonymity.
The Supreme Federal Court dismissed Collor’s final bid to overturn the arrest order on Thursday, thus enabling law enforcement to take him into custody.
The allegations against Collor relate to claims that he accepted illicit payments to improperly facilitate contracts between a construction company and BR Distribuidora, a former subsidiary of the state-run oil giant Petrobras. Prosecutors have asserted that the former leader utilised his political influence to secure these contracts in exchange for financial kickbacks, a practice that has long afflicted Brazil’s public institutions.
Collor’s downfall echoes historical precedents. Elected in 1989, he assumed office in 1990 but was compelled to resign just two years later in 1992 amid a vast corruption scandal that prompted Congress to commence impeachment proceedings. At that time, he stepped down in an attempt to evade a formal conviction, although his political career never fully recuperated.
His conviction places him among a growing roster of Brazilian presidents who have encountered legal issues in recent decades. Of the seven presidents who have governed Brazil since the end of military dictatorship in 1985, four have now been impeached, convicted, or imprisoned.
In a separate ongoing case, former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro is currently facing trial over allegations of orchestrating a coup attempt following his defeat in the 2022 presidential election. This trend of legal accountability highlights the enduring tension between Brazil’s political elite and its judicial institutions.
