Lula to Tour 3,000 Kilometers in Brazil's North East

Brazil's former president will start a tour in the north east of the country to “listen to the necessities of the people,” the Workers' Party – which he co-founded in 1980 – announced on Tuesday.

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Seventy-one-year-old Luiz Ignacio “Lula” da Silva, who is set to go to the state of Bahia on Aug. 17, will visit 28 cities in nine states in one of the country's most impoverished region. The tour will end on Sept. 7 in Maranhao and each leg will be broadcasted live on social media, explained the movement's press committee to AFP.

The former union leader's upcoming tour will revive the process that put him in power in 2003, with the “Citizenship Caravans” he set up between 1993 and 1998.

“I learned the most about Brazil when I was traveling in the country,” he told local media last week. “That's why I am doing the caravans again.”

A court recently sentenced him to 9 years in prison, for being implicated in the Petrobras corruption network, possibly barring him from running for president in the upcoming 2018 elections.

Lula is accused of receiving a beach apartment, as a kickback, from the Brazilian construction conglomerate OAS in exchange for political favors – like, helping the firm win government contracts.

Lula has denied owning the property and slammed the case as a "farce," claiming it is an attempt to destroy his character and sabotage his candidacy in the 2018 presidential election.