Sao Paulo Forum to Discuss Attacks on Brazil's Lula at Meeting

The Sao Paulo Forum announced its plans to discuss the global rise of corruption cases, resolutions to the current capitalist crisis as well as its effects on politics and society at this year's meeting to begin on July 15.

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Uniting organizations from 33 nations, the left-wing forum is set to begin its eighth meeting on Saturday in Nicaragua's capital of Managua. At the very top of the agenda, will be the sentence passed in Brazil against former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, which the body staunchly denounced.

“The ruling is based exclusively on award-winning statements negotiated over months with confessed criminals and simply validates the convictions contained in the indictment of prosecutors of the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office without the submission of evidence to justify the conviction in the terms expressed by the laws Brazilians,” the forum said in a statement.

The former head of state's sentence was announced Wednesday, condemning Lula to nine years and six months in prison, on charges of passive corruption crimes, money laundering, and allegedly accepting a bribe of US$1.15 million as connected to the Operation Car Wash investigations.

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After the sentence in the first instance condemning the former president of Brazil the forum issued a statement saying that the action represents "an attack on democracy and the Federal Constitution."

The leftist meeting, which began in 1990, will be held over four days covering the globalization of neoliberalism and U.S. protectionist policies.

Additionally, the organization plans to debate potential threats to human rights such as corruption, state institutions, the economy as it benefits private interests, and the state of working class individuals across the globe.

The meeting will end July 19 with a closing ceremony celebrating the 38th Anniversary of Triumph of the Sandinista Popular Revolution.