Twist of the scene: the Brazilian Supreme Court acquits former president Lula
The Brazilian Supreme Court overturned all sentences against the former president of the Workers' Party, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, restoring his political rights and allowing him to run again in next year's elections.
Supreme Court Justice Edson Fachin ruled on Monday that Curitiba's 13th Federal Court, which had convicted Lula of money laundering and corruption, actually had no jurisdiction over the cases. His sentence is therefore null.
The judge overturned all the sentences handed down to the 75-year-old in relation to the “Operation Lava Jato” (Car Wash), a major anti-corruption investigation in which three former presidents and numerous officials were indicted.
Monday's ruling means Lula's political rights have been restored, making him eligible to run against Brazil's current leader, Jair Bolsonaro, in the 2022 presidential election. The country's so-called "Clean Record Act" prevents those who have convictions of holding public office, a measure that has already cost the veteran politician a spot in the 2018 presidential race.
The judge's decision was procedural and did not focus on the validity of previous cases against Lula. A lower court will now have to decide whether it should be retried on those charges.
Brazil's Attorney General Augusto Aras has already announced that he intends to appeal against the Supreme Court ruling.
Lula was president of Brazil between 2003 and 2011, a period of rapid economic growth for the country that saw millions of people coming out of poverty through social assistance programs, but her policies proved ephemeral and, in fact, more than a reduction of poverty it was a question of a turnover of the poor which took place in a situation of growing insecurity.
The politician was convicted in 2018 for receiving bribes from construction companies in exchange for public contracts; however, he only spent 580 days behind bars as the Supreme Court overturned mandatory imprisonment for convicted offenders who were dismissed on the first appeal. Now his career restarts in a climate made more tense by Covid which has seen the Brazilian tourist flow completely eliminated.
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The article Colpo di scena : the Brazilian Supreme Court acquits former president Lula comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/colpo-di-scena-la-corte-suprema-brasiliana-assolve-lex-presidente-lula/ on Tue, 09 Mar 2021 06:55:38 +0000.