MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Another blow for Brazilian president Lula da Silva

A Brazilian court suspended the civil rights of Sao Paulo's former mayor Marta Suplicy, for a three-year period because of improper management of public funds while she was in office, reported the Brazilian press Wednesday.

The ruling against Ms. Suplicy who managed Brazil's largest city from 2001 to 2004, was issued by Judge Christiane Santini on June 9.

Ms. Suplicy a close friend of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and a key member of his leftist Workers Party can appeal the ruling, which, if upheld, would ruin her plans to run for Governor of Sao Paulo in 2006.

According to the judge, Ms Suplicy and Sao Paulo municipal education secretary Maria Aparecida Perez engaged in administrative malfeasance when in 2003 they hired, without a prior bidding process, a non-governmental organization to provide public school teachers with training in sexual-orientation issues.

The organization was the Sexual Orientation Research Work Group, which former sexologist Ms. Suplicy founded in 1990 and of which she was honorary chairman until 2000.

The municipality paid the NGO the equivalent of 835,000 US dollars arguing no bidding was necessary because the organization was non-profit and had educational experience, according to the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo.

Ms. Suplicy sought re-election last year but was defeated by centre-right Jose Serra, a former Cabinet minister who lost the 2002 presidential contest to current president Lula da Silva.

Since then she has been competing with other Workers Party leaders for the Sao Paulo gubernatorial nomination.

Ms. Suplicy's court ruling could not have come at a worse moment. The ruling party is struggling to overcome a nationwide corruption scandal over alleged bribes to members of Congress from other parties to ensure support for the Lula da Silva administration sponsored bills.

The first victim of the scandal was the all powerful Jose Dirceu, President Lula's top political advisor and who masterminded the Workers Party victory in 2002.