Lula da Silva has served a one-year prison sentence for corruption: "I can sleep with the conscience of my innocence"

Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, imprisoned a year ago for corruption, said that he had a clear conscience, in an article signed by him and published this Sunday by the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo, where he reiterated that he is imprisoned unjustly accused of a crime that he did not commit.

In the article, the former president also He stressed that President Jair Bolsonaro was the main beneficiary of the "political persecution" who made the right moves against him.

"I was unfairly jailed for a year, charged and convicted of a crime that never existed. Every day that I have spent here has increased my indignation, but I maintain my faith in a fair trial in which the truth will prevail. I can sleep with a clear awareness of my innocence", said Lula in the article.

The former 73-year-old president, who led Brazil for the Workers Party between 2003 and 2010, was put behind bars on April 7 by Judge Sergio Moro, who then led the Lava Jato operation process and who is now Minister of Justice and Public Security of the Bolsonaro Government.

Lula was incarcerated, accused of receiving from the OAS construction company, in the form of bribe, an apartment in exchange for contractual benefits with the state oil company Petrobras.

Although the former president has always insisted on his innocence, he recalled in his article that the Supreme Court had denied the existence of a habeas corpus exercised by "the media, the market and even the armed forces, as recently confirmed Jair Bolsonaro, the largest beneficiary of this persecution ".

"Nothing that they found to incriminate me: no bandit conversations, no money bags, no accounts abroad. Despite everything, I was sentenced in record time by Sergio Moro and TRF-4 for "indeterminate acts" without finding any connection between the apartment that has ever been mine and the alleged deflections of Petrobras, "said the former president.

In his article this Sunday, Lula worried about Brazil's current situation and stressed that in the country "the rights of the people and citizenship have been revoked"and" national sovereignty "was given to foreigners.

In addition, Lula said that it all started with the "blow" brought to the former president Dilma Roussseff (2011-2016) during his second term, which, according to the former president, was an act committed against the development model created by the Workers Party (PT).

Rousseff was dismissed in August 2016 from his position for irregularity in the treatment of public funds, according to a process called "impeachment". The Brazilian presidency was badumed by Michel Temer, a right-wing politician who had previously played a leading role. as vice president.

"The coup d'état with indictment without a crime of responsibility went against the model of development with social inclusion that the country built since 2003. In 12 years, we have created 20 million jobs, we have taken 32 million people out of poverty and multiplied by five GDP. We open the university for millions of outcasts. We have overcome hunger, "said Lula in the text.

In his article, the former president pointed out that the neoliberal model that reached the government after the "coup d'etat" plunged the country into a "financial meltdown" and "a persistent recession".

"People soon realized that they had been deceived, unemployment increased, social programs were emptied, schools and hospitals lost money," he said.

That is why, as explained by the former president in the text, the Brazilians wanted to resume the model he had founded and who pursued his political goddaughter Rousseff, as evidenced by the first polls last year where Lula had achieved the highest approval rates. return to power.

However, Lula was unable to participate in the elections for being sentenced by a court of second instance.

"My candidacy was banned contrary to the electoral law, the jurisprudence and the determination of the United Nations Human Rights Committee to guarantee my political rights, and even so, our candidate Fernando Haddad had express votes and was only beaten by the industry of Bolsonaro's lie in social networks"he said.

The news that your lawyers bring you during your two daily visits can not be worse. No appeal has succeeded in releasing him, and this Thursday, the Federal Supreme Court has postponed to a later date the discussions next week on a change of case law for those convicted in the second instance, which could lead to his release.

The new setback leaves everything in the hands of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), a sort of third instance, which could review its appeal in the coming days. Some voices have asked to be badigned at home, but everything is in the air in an unprecedented case, which arouses pbadions.

Everything could change on July 8when a duty judge took advantage of the calm of a Sunday to order his release, thus beginning a cross-checking of decisions that were only resolved by a last order that kept him prisoner, after hours of tension intense. It was the closest moment to leave.

(With information from EFE and AFP)