Sergio Moro, the judge who imprisoned Lula wins a seat in the Brazilian Senate

Ex-judge Sergio Moro, who was imprisoned under his rule as former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and later served as justice minister in Jair Bolsonaro’s government, won a seat in Brazil’s Senate in Sunday’s legislative elections.

Moro, the former anti-corruption symbol in Brazil, even wanted to run in the presidential elections, but was finally forced by his party, Unión Brasil, to stop; Today he won 33.7% of the votes for Paraná (south), with 98.2% of the votes counted.

The former judge was ahead of Paolo Martins, who was Bolsonaro’s closest candidate (29.1%); Alvaro Dias (23.9%); and Roseanne Ferreira (8.0%).

Moro took the disputed seat in Parana state, initially ruling on the cases of the Lava Jato operation, which in 2014 exposed a corruption plot in state-owned Petrobras, and jailed businessmen and politicians, including Lula. who spent 580 days in prison.

Another of his allies in Lava Jato, the attorney general coordinating that process, Deltan Dalignol, was elected a federal deputy, being the most voted Paraná, even ahead of the Labor leader, Gliese Hoffman, according to the official results.

Moro’s wife, Rosangela Moro, a candidate for a federal deputy from the state of São Paulo, is also participating in this legislative election.

The Lava Jato process has fallen into disgrace from the moment the Supreme Court overturned many of these proceedings due to jurisdictional problems and, in addition, declared that Moro was not “neutral” in the cases against Lula, who is supposed to contest a second round of Presidential election. by Bolsonaro.

Moro left the judiciary to become justice minister under Bolsonaro in 2019, who had won elections the previous year and this year aspires to renew his term for another four years.

However, he resigned from the post in April 2020, in disagreement with the head of state, who accused him of interfering politically in the Federal Police in the interests of his own interests.

After that, he launched himself in the presidential race and polls put him in third place, behind Lula and Bolsonaro, with about 10% of voting intentions, although Unión Brasil finally gave up his name.

About 156 million Brazilians went to the polls today to elect the president, 27 governors, 513 federal deputies and one-third of the 81 senators, as well as regional legislatures.