Lula legacy at risk in Brazil corruption trial

Brazil's biggest ever bribery trial began Thursday with dozens of former officials facing vote-buying charges in a case that could tarnish the legacy of popular ex-leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. In what the media has dubbed "the trial of the century," 38 former ministers, lawmakers, businessmen and bankers face prosecution before the Supreme Court over alleged vote-buying in Congress between 2002 and 2005. Supreme Court Justice Carlos Ayres Britto opened proceedings by reading aloud the names of each defendant and detailing the charges against them, which ranged from embezzlement and money laundering to corruption and fraud. Known as "Mensalao" (big monthly payments), the scandal embroils Lula's Workers Party (PT) and Brazil's ruling coalition but more broadly sheds light on the now-reviled practices of the entire political establishment. According to charges that first surfaced in 2005, during Lula's first term, PT members allegedly offered bribes to members of Congress in exchange for their votes. Prosecutors allege that the bribe money was skimmed from the advertising budgets of state-owned companies through a company owned by businessman Marcos Valerio de Souza, one of the accused. Lula, the founder and leader of the leftist party who served as president from 2003 to 2010, is not among the defendants, who face up to 45 years in prison. The ex-president has maintained that he was betrayed and offered public apologies on behalf of the PT. But a lawyer for Labor Party lawmaker Roberto Jefferson, who exposed the vote-buying scheme in 2005, said he would ask during the trial why Lula is not among the accused. The scandal has been receiving blanket coverage from the Brazilian media and the outcome of the trial, expected to last at least one month, could affect October municipal elections that will set the political map for the 2014 presidential poll. Some analysts believe the trial could help the opposition in the municipal elections. "It is a test for the Brazilian political system. Its credibility is at stake," said David Fischer, a political scientist at Brasilia University. A lawyer for Lula's former chief of staff, Jose Dirceu, one of the main defendants, insists there was no Mensalao. "There was no so-called vote-buying," the lawyer, Jose Luiz Oliveira Lima, told the daily O Globo Wednesday. "There is no proof of any use of public money. Dozens of witnesses categorically say that Dirceu had no knowledge of the loans and (money) transfers," he said. Attorney General Roberto Gurgel, who will first make the case for the prosecution, has called it "the most daring and outrageous corruption scheme and embezzlement of public funds ever seen in Brazil." Defense arguments begin on Friday.