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News > Brazil

Brazil's Top Court Could Cancel One of Lula's Sentences

  • The former president is already serving a sentence of eight years and ten months since April 2018.

    The former president is already serving a sentence of eight years and ten months since April 2018. | Photo: Reuters

Published 2 October 2019
Opinion

Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court approved in August a similar habeas corpus and overturned a Lava Jato’s conviction for the first time.

Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) will render Wednesday its verdict on an appeal that could lead to canceling dozens of sentences pertaining to the Lava Jato operation, including a sentence affecting the imprisoned former president of the country, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

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The appeal is a habeas corpus presented by Marcio de Almeida Ferreira, a former director of the state-owned oil company Petrobras. Ferreira argues the legal procedure where the defendant speaks after the informant was not respected in the trial where he was convicted, depriving him of the right to a complete defense.

Last August, the STF approved a similar habeas corpus and overturned a Lava Jato’s conviction for the first time, that time against former Petrobras president Aldemir Bendine.

Last week, six among the eleven judges of the court formed a majority to approve the charge of Almeida Ferreira. However, they still have to decide on the extent of the verdict, whether it should be applied retroactively and in what cases. If its retroactivity is approved, it could be the biggest blow received so far to the Lava Jato operation.

“The decision adopted by the high court could result in the annulment of 32 sentences involving 143 of the 162 convicted” the prosecutors warned, explaining that the cases could return to the phase of allegations, the phase previous to the first sentences. Some of the convicted could be released, depending on the forthcoming decision.

However, STF President Jose Antonio Dias Toffoli has already advocated publicly the setting of limits to mitigate the extent of the decision.

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Among the sentences that could be canceled is Lula's so-called "Site of Atibaia" case, for which he was sentenced to 12 years and 11 months in jail in a controversial conviction by former Lava Jota judge and current Justice Minister Sergio Moro. 

Since April 2018, Lula has been serving a sentence of eight years and ten months in prison in Curitiba, after being found guilty in the first and second instances in the case of the Guarujá triplex. ​​​​​​

The STF decision would probably not affect Lula's triplex case and therefore would not mean his release, a jurist told AFP.

Moro's decision against Lula rendered him ineligible to run in the 2018 presidential election at a time when all polls showed that the ex-president was the clear frontrunner. This gave far-right Jair Bolsonaro a strong lead and the eventual win over the presidency. By last week, the ex-head of state had served a sixth of his reduced sentence, which gives him the right to move to a semi-open routine, enabling him to work during the day and to return to his cell during the night, wearing an electronic ankle brace.

However, the former president rejected this option saying that he won’t trade his dignity for freedom.

The STF still has to analyze two cases that could lead to the release of the Worker’s Party chief: an appeal to the constitutionality of the sentences and another that questions the impartiality of Moro.

"It is now up to the Supreme Court to correct what was wrong so that there could be an independent and impartial justice," Lula added.

In June, The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald led the publication of a three-part expose that revealed massive wrongdoings and partiality by Moro against Lula during the trial. 

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