Eduardo Cunha the former head of Brazil’s lower house of congress has been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for his role in the massive Car Wash corruption scandal.

Cunha’s conviction is one of the stiffest penalties handed down to such a senior politician since the end of the dictatorship era in 1985, but public satisfaction with the judgement will be mixed with concern that he could yet win an appeal and many other powerful figures accused of similar crimes remain unpunished. Curitiba lower court judge Sergio Moro found Cunha – a rightwing evangelical Christian – guilty of corruption, money laundering and currency law evasion in connection with a $1.6m bribe he received from a deal by state-run oil firm Petrobras to buy exploration rights in Benin. The judgement also noted a pending case in Switzerland related to $2.3m stashed in a secret bank account in the European country.(the guardian)…[+]