Lula da Silva: "I am unjustly imprisoned for a crime that never existed"

The former president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, that this April 7 carries out a year of imprisonment at Curitiba Prison declared that he had "a quiet conscience" and denounced his "unjust imprisonment for a crime that never existed" . "I can sleep with a clear conscience of my innocence, I doubt that they sleep peacefully, those who have sentenced me by a judicial joke," said the exmandatario in a letter published in the newspaper . Folha de Sao Paulo.

Lula, President of Brazil between 2003 and 2010 was convicted in first and second instance for pbadive bribery and money laundering, as a beneficiary of a service which, according to justice, would have been made available to construction companies to obtain contracts with Petrobras in the context of the Lava Jato investigation. In February of this year, he was sentenced to 12 years and 11 months more, considering getting reforms in a country house, also in exchange for contracts with the state oil company.

Lula celebrates a year of imprisonment, between personal distress and political validity

"They did not find anything to incriminate me: no bandits conversations, no wallets, no accounts abroad." Despite everything, I was sentenced in record time by Sergio Moro and by TRF-4, for "indeterminate acts" without finding any link between the department that was never mine and the alleged diversions of Petrobras, "he said in this article.

The truth is that most of the evidence used to imprison Lula comes from the confessions of the former president of a construction company who had agreed to reduce his sentence in return for targeting the former president. For this testimony, Judge Sergio Moro, the current justice minister of President Jair BolsonaroHe pronounced his sentence of imprisonment even though he could find no documentary evidence of the crime.

In this line, Lula continues his article by stating that the dismissal of his successor, Dilma Rousseff, was a "blow to the model of development with social inclusion built by the country since 2003. In 12 years, we created 20 million We are leaving 32 million people out of poverty, we multiply the GDP by five, we open the university to millions of excluded people, we fight against hunger, "he said.

Rousseff was fired by Parliament in August 2016 after being re-elected, accused of irregularities in the management of public funds through the so-called "indictment". Instead, he badumed his vice president, Michel Temer, who was recently arrested also under the Lava Jato, although he was released shortly thereafter.

"My candidacy was banned, unlike the electoral law, the jurisprudence and the determination of the United Nations Human Rights Committee to guarantee my political rights, despite our candidate Fernando Haddad having had votes. Express and has been beaten only by the industry of Bolsonaro's lie in social networks, "continued Da Silva in his writings.

"What worries me the most, however, is what is happening with Brazil and the suffering of our people." To impose an exceptional process, they violated the limits of the law and the Constitution, weakening democracy. The rights of the people and of citizenship have been revoked, while they impose the collapse of wages, the precariousness of employment and the rising cost of living ", he said. declared.

The acts Several thousand supporters of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvale showed their support this Sunday in front of the prison of Curitiba (south) where he has been imprisoned for corruption for only a year.

Similar protests have been held in other Brazilian cities, including Sao Paulo and Belo Horizonte, as well as in other countries to protest the imprisonment of the Brazilian leftist patriarch, who is serving a 12-year sentence and a month in prison in February. He was sentenced to 12 years and 11 months imprisonment in another case.

If this sanction is ratified in the second instance, their sentence would be 25 years. But under Brazilian law, he could benefit from a semi-open plan consisting of four compliments, one-sixth of the sentence, provided that he is not convicted in any of the other processes that he does. he opened.

M.S./D.S.