Brazil's Lula gets prison term

(Vatican Radio) Twice President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva,  has been sentenced to nine and a half years, after being convicted by a Judge of corruption charges.  

Listen to James Blears report:

Judge Sergio Moro  found Lula guilty of accepting the equivalent of 1.2 million dollars in bribes, principally in the form of a luxury apartment in return for steering State Petroleum Company Petrobras contracts the way of engineering company OAS.  Lula, who's denied any wrong doing, says it's been a political witch hunt.  Characteristically he's said: "I'll keep fighting."  Born into acute poverty, a shoe shine boy who became a union leader, and twice President of Brazil, economically pulling it up by its bootstraps, Lula remains very popular amongst the millions he helped elevate from dire  poverty.  His chosen successor Dilma Rousseff was impeached and removed from the Presidency for allegedly manipulating the economy via banks. and  current President Michel Temer, has been formally charged with bribery.