The court sentenced former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lulu da Silva to 9.5 years in prison, finding him guilty of corruption.

The ex-president and his spouse were accused of not having declared a luxury penthouse in the resort town of Guaruja and illegally received 747.8 thousand. Dollars from the construction company OAS in exchange for assistance in obtaining contracts with the state company Petrobras.

Lawyers Da Silva intend to appeal the decision of the court. Before its consideration, the former president will be at large.

He continues to insist on his innocence, denies any unlawful actions and claims that the criminal case against him is fabricated by his political opponents.

Lula da Silva served as President of Brazil for two consecutive terms, from 2003 to 2010, and enjoyed great popularity in the country.

After his resignation, his country was succeeded by his successor from the Labor Party, Dilma Russef, but soon both the former and the current leader began to accuse corruption.

In 2014, the Brazilian prosecutor's office launched an investigation into the bribe-taking scheme organized by Petrobras, which was named "Operation Car Wash".

During the investigation, several criminal cases were opened, involving dozens of large businessmen and functionaries of the Workers' Party - all of them were accused of involvement in multi-billion corruption schemes.

In March 2016, in this case, Lula Da Silva was briefly arrested, but soon Dilma Russef appointed him head of his administration and ex-president, thus obtaining immunity from criminal prosecution.

But at the end of August last year, Russef herself was dismissed from her post for violating budget legislation.

Brazil is experiencing the worst economic crisis in decades. After several years of promising growth, the country's economy has declined.

During the second term of Russef's rule, the deficit of the state budget, inflation and unemployment sharply increased, the country lost its hard earned investment grade credit rating.