The man who spent two decades as the political right arm of former President Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva was found guilty here Tuesday in a corruption case dubbed Brazil's "trial of the century."
Six of the 10 Supreme Court justices voted to convict Jose Dirceu, Lula's chief of staff, and former
 Workers Party, or PT, chairman Jose Genoino in connection with bribes
 paid to lawmakers in 2003-2005.
While Dirceu has been out of
 public life for several years, 
Genoino is currently an adviser 
to the
 Defense Ministry.
At Lula's side from the founding 
of the PT in the early 1980s, Dirceu managed the former union
 leader's successful 2002
 presidential campaign and 
became his top aide in office.
Dirceu, once seen as the natural successor to Lula, was forced to
 resign as chief of staff in the
 summer of 2005 after lawmaker
 Roberto Jefferson accused the PT of having bribed legislators
 of other parties to build the congressional majority that the government failed to obtain at the
 polls in 2002.
The scandal didn't stop Lula from 
winning a second four-year term 
in 2006 and his anointed 
successor, Dilma Rousseff,
 prevailed in the 2010 presidential 
contest.
The Supreme Court majority 
accepted prosecutors' argument that Dirceu was the "mentor
" of the bribery scheme.
Two justices declined to convict
 Dirceu, including one who
 worked with him during Lula's first
 administration, while the remaining 
court members have yet to render 
their verdicts.
Former PT treasurer Delubio Soares
 was also found guilty on Tuesday, as were public 
relations executive Marcos Valerio Fernandes, his three business partners, his attorney
 and one of his employees.
Fernandes handled the disbursement of the bribes to congresspeople.
Anderson Adauto, a former transport minister, and another Fernandes employee,
 Geisa Dias, were acquitted on Tuesday.
Twenty-three of the 37 defendants have been convicted. EFE