They reduce Lula Da Silva's sentence and could leave prison in September

Unanimously, the Supreme Court of Justice of Brazil (STJ) voted in favor of reducing the conviction of the former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for pbadive bribery and money laundering from 12 years and one month to 8 years and 10 months in prison.

This decision would allow the former president, 73, benefit before the end of the year from a semi-open plan, with right to day work, according to judicial experts. That would be at the end of September, shortly before the completion of a year and a half in prison.

With the reduction of the sentence, the possibility that Lula leaves the prison this year is based on the Law on Penal Enforcement, which allows progression to a semi-open regime the prisoner who has served one-sixth of his sentence.

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

The reduction was voted by the magistrates Felix Fischer, Jorge Mussi, Reynaldo Soares da Fonseca and Ribeiro Dantas. The fifth member of the STJ, Joel Paciornik, did not participate in the decision, according to the portal Folha de S.Paulo.

In addition to reducing the sentence, the majority of the Court voted in favor of reducing the amount of the fine imposed on Lula by the Federal Regional Court of the 4th region, on 280 days fine (about R $ 1 million) to 175 days fine (633.5 thousand R $). The daily fine is the value of five minimum wages in 2014 (R $ 3,620), the date of the last indictable offense indicated in the indictment.

Finally, the value of repairing damage caused by crime it was also reduced to a majority, to 2.4 million rand, instead of the 16 million rand calculated as a loss for Petrobras. In this regard, the Ministers emphasized that the possible evolution of the sanction would depend on the payment of compensation by the convicted person.

Lula was sentenced to 12 years and one month of indictment for agreeing to pay a bribe to a seaside triplex apartment for helping the OAS building society during his 2003 presidency to 2010 to obtain contracts with the national oil company Petrobras.

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

He was also sentenced in February last year to an additional 12 years and 11 months imprisonment by a lower court for carrying out reforms in another property, as well as in exchange for contracts with the oil company. d & # 39; State.

The exmandatario alleges that he was convicted without evidence and denounces a judicial persecution aimed at preventing the Workers Party (PT) came back to power in last October's elections, during which the far right Jair Bolsonaro. Lula was a favorite in the polls until her disqualification.

His lawyers are asking for his acquittal and, recently, they have presented the alternative that the money laundering charges be considered an electoral crime, which could reduce his sentence. Lula is also facing other cases awaiting trial, but his detention in prison is due to the case of Guarujá triplex, as Brazilian law allows the first appeal.

MS / CP