RIO DE JANEIRO, June 13 (Xinhua) -- A former governor of Rio de Janeiro was sentenced to 14 years and two months in prison for passive corruption and money laundering, judicial authorities announced Tuesday.
Federal Judge Sergio Moro, who is overseeing the corruption scandal of Brazil's state-owned oil company Petrobras, also sentenced former Rio de Janeiro state governor Sergio Cabral to pay a fine of 160,000 U.S. dollars.
Cabral was arrested in November 2016 on multiple bribery and money laundering charges as part of a colossal graft probe roiling Brazil.
"The crime is part of a very broad context...in which the governor and his associates systematically collected a percentage as kickback from all public works carried out in the state of Rio de Janeiro," wrote Moro in the sentence.
Cabral, Rio state governor from 2007 to 2014, faces a total of nine corruption cases against him and this is the first conviction against him.
Moro also ruled that Cabral will only be able to ask for a reduction of his sentence after having returned all the illegal assets he owned.
"The responsibility of a state governor is enormous and, as a result, so is his guilt when he commits a crime. There can be no crime more severe than betraying one's charge and the sacred trust given by the people to benefit oneself," Moro said.
Wilson Carlos Carvalho, Rio's former secretary of the interior and Cabral's right-hand man, was also found guilty of corruption and sentenced Carvalho to 10 years in jail.
