Brazil court reduces ex-president Lula's sentence

A Brazilian appeals court has reduced leftist former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's 12-year sentence for bribery and money laundering.

In a unanimous decision, the four judges on the Superior Court of Justice panel hearing Lula's appeal agreed to uphold his conviction, but reduced the sentence to eight years and 10 months.

The hearing was broadcast live on the court's YouTube channel. The 73-year-old leftist icon, who has been sentenced to 25 years behind bars in two separate corruption cases, marked his first year in jail earlier this month.

Lula was handed 12 years and one month on charges that he accepted a seaside apartment as a bribe for helping the OAS construction company during his 2003-2010 presidency to get lucrative deals with state oil firm Petrobras.

Lula is also appealing the second sentence of almost 13 years handed down in February for accepting renovation work by two construction companies on a farmhouse in exchange for ensuring they won contracts with Petrobras.

Lula has denied all the charges against him, claiming they were politically motivated with the aim of preventing him competing in elections last year that were won by Brazil's new far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.

During his election campaign, Bolsonaro said he hoped Lula would "rot in prison."