RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Former Rio de Janeiro state governor Sergio Cabral was found guilty of money laundering on Friday and sentenced to 13 more years in prison, adding his jail term to 72 years.
It was Cabral's third trial for corruption-related crimes and he was found guilty all three times.
Cabral has been in prison for the past 11 months.
Judge Marcelo Bretas, who ordered the sentence, said that Cabral "deviated from the noble attributions granted to him by the people's vote to dedicate himself to crimes for several years."
Bretas stressed that Cabral benefited from embezzled money, saying that although he alone cannot be responsible for the current severe economic crisis in Rio de Janeiro state, "the episodes of corruption described in this case significantly reduced the legitimacy of the state authorities in the pursuit of solutions to the crisis."
The former governor's press team released an official statement, rapping the sentence as "unjust" and accusing Judge Bretas of violating Cabral's constitutional rights and ignoring the evidences of the case.
Cabral served as governor of Rio de Janeiro state at the time Rio de Jeneiro, capital of the state, was chosen to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Carlos Arthur Nuzman, former president of Brazil's Olympic Committee (COB), also has been charged with corruption. Nuzman has been accused of paying bribes to African delegates to ensure that Rio would be chosen as the host city of the 2016 Summer Olympics.
