Brazilian justice acquitted Lula da Silva in one of the corruption cases

Justice acquitted on Monday Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in one of the corruption cases in which the former president of Brazil He was accused by the prosecution, reported judicial sources.

Besides Lula, the Federal Judge of Brasilia acquitted six other people, among them the former minister Gilberto Carvalho, which had been denounced by supposedly favoring the auto industry in exchange for bribes.

In its complaint, filed in 2017, the prosecutor’s office claimed that Lula, who ruled Brazil between 2003 and 2010, published, in exchange for alleged bribes, legislation to favor auto companies by extending tax breaks for five years, but the charge was dismissed.

According to the judge Federico Botelho of Barros Viana, the investigation did not show “convincingly“Que Lula and Carvalho, who was his minister and also head of the portfolio of the Secretariat of the Presidency during the first government of the former president Dilma Rousseff, “participated in the alleged criminal context”.

The process is framed in the “Operation Zealots», Which has been studying since 2015 the alleged irregularities within the CARF, the treasury department in charge of sanctioning tax evaders, and it also dotted several major bankers and politicians.

Lula, who has arrived 580 days in prison for corruption, was favored this year by a Supreme Court ruling that overturned other corruption penalties this weighed against him and thus made it possible to restore his political rights.

In a sentence that does not excuse him, Supreme Court quashed four lawsuits against former president in Curitiba courts over jurisdictional dispute and ruled that the cases should be taken to other courts, overturning the nearly 26-year prison sentence against him.

Following the court ruling, the 75-year-old leader of the Workers’ Party (PT), hinted at his willingness to run for the presidential elections next year, in which he would face the president and leader of the Brazilian far right, Jair Bolsonaro.

According to the first surveys, the former trade unionist would lead the electoral race and win in a possible second round against Bolsonaro.

(With information from EFE)

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