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News > Latin America

Brazil: Denying Lula Healthcare 'Crime Against His Humanity'

  • Supporters of former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in front of the Federal Police headquarters in Curitiba.

    Supporters of former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in front of the Federal Police headquarters in Curitiba. | Photo: Reuters

Published 26 April 2018
Opinion

The request for Lula to be allowed a medical check-up was denied under the pretext that there was no 'claim of urgency.'

Brazil's Workers' Party (PT) is condemning the denial of medical assistance to former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who's been imprisoned for corruption at federal police headquarters in Curitiba since April 7, as a "crime against his humanity."

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Signed by Workers' Party President Gleisi Hoffman and lawmakers Lindbergh and Paulo Pimenta, the statement released on Thursday said that a request was made last week to allow doctors Rui de Oliveira and Darley Rugeri Wollmann Jr. to visit Lula for a health check-up.

"Given the lack of response by the judge (Carolina Moura Lebbos), the petition was resent today and denied under the absurd pretext that there was no 'claim of urgency,'" the statement reads.

"How is there no urgency? Lula is 72 years old; a man who has been treated for throat cancer since 2011, he has been practicing physical exercises under the supervision of Dr. Rui de Oliveira and performed periodic cardiac evaluations (pressure monitoring, for example), and medical studies for which Dr. Darley Wollmann voluntereerd himself to conduct in Curitiba."

Having been "held in solitary confinement" since his arrest is "another arbitrary act" and "injustice" committed against Lula, the statement continues.

On Wednesday, Lula sent a written message to the Landless Workers' Movement (MST), saying the social group "knows more than anybody else how the pain of injustice feels, the persecution, fabricated and manipulated processes and the innumerable arrests and murders of comrades who struggle for land and for a dignified life... I send my eternal gratitude to all of you who believe in my innocence and fight against injustice."

Despite his conviction and imprisonment for corruption, events that many legal experts and observers attribute to lawfare and a salacious mainstream media campaign, Lula has topped every 2018 electoral poll conducted by Vox Populi, Ibope, Datafolha, Data Poder 360, Instituto Parana, the National Confederation of Transportation/MDA and Ipsos.

Lula's two terms in office were marked by a slew of social programs, lifting millions of Brazilians out of poverty and removing the country from the United Nations World Hunger Map. He left office with a record approval rating of 83 percent in 2011, according to Datafolha.

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