Brazil's Supreme Court Again Denies Lula's Appeal for Freedom

Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has again been denied release from captivity with the Supreme Court rejecting yet another appeal by his defense.

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Lula has been detained at the Federal Police of Curitiba headquarters in Parana on corruption charges for more than a month since complying with the warrant for his arrest on April 7.

The five magistrates of the Second Chamber unanimously voted against the request to free the founder of Brazil's Workers' Party (PT), sentenced to 12 years and one month in prison in connection with the Car Wash corruption investigation.

Lula's defense team has stated on several occasions that Judge Serio Moro, who ordered Lula's detention, overstepped his duties when he issued the arrest warrant.

Despite his incarceration, Lula continues to top polls leading up to Brazil's presidential elections, which are scheduled to take place in October. 

On Wednesday, Lula reaffirmed that he will run for president in a letter sent to the president of the Workers' Party, Senator Gleisi Hoffmann, and said that giving up would be like assuming that he committed a crime, which he denies.

"If I accept the idea of not being a candidate, I will be assuming that I committed a crime; I did not commit any crime," Lula said in the letter, which was published Wednesday night on the PT website.

"That is why I am a candidate until the truth appears and that the media, judges and prosecutors show the crime that I committed or that they stop lying."