Luck isn’t on Lula da Silva’s side

On November 8, Luis Ignácio Lula da Silva, 74, was released after a controversial decision by the Brazilian Supreme Court. The former president, accused of corruption, was in prison for 580 days. However, the happiness did not last long for Lula after his departure, since on November 27, the second instance court ratified and increased his sentence to 17 years and 1 month in prison.

This sentence, which was issued in February, is for passive corruption and money laundering in the well-known "case of Atibaia." In that first instance, Lula had been sentenced to 12 years and 11 months in jail. It was the Federal Regional Court of the Fourth Region, in Porto Alegre, the entity that unanimously decided to ratify the sentence since for the three magistrates it is “proven that Lula benefited from the works for about one million reais (about US $ 236,000) that the construction companies Odebrecht and OAS made in a country house located in the state of Sao Paulo, in exchange for favoring companies in contracts with state-owned Petrobras, ”explains El País.

The instructor, Joao Pedro Gebran Neto, said that "we have extensive documentation of evidence, with expert reports, documents, assets, witness references that he (Lula) used the property." The defense of the former president had asked the Court to annul the sentence based on the ruling of the Court, but the magistrates, on the contrary, raised the penalty imposed. For the moment, thanks to the decision of the Court, Lula will remain free.

According to EFE, knowing the decision, the defense of the former president said there is political and legal persecution against Lula. The lawyer Cristiano Zanin Martins stated that "we saw political arguments being presented instead of legal arguments. The question of law was neglected."

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Through his Twitter account, Lula da Silva posted messages that allude to his innocence:

I will win every lawsuit against me exposing their lies. My innocence is proven in the case file. They have no evidence, what they have is a thesis: that Lula cannot be released.

I know that I will live a life of great struggle in the future. But who knows who is innocent is not afraid to fight.