Brazilian Senator and president of the Workers Party, PT, Gleisi Hoffmann said that jailing ex president Lula da Silva, indicted on corruption charges, once the final ruling is known will mean “killing many people”.
“To arrest Lula they will have first to arrest a lot of people, and I would go even further, they will have to kill people, many people”, said Gleisi Hoffmann in a long interview published in the news portal “Poder360”.
The head of PT, who considers Lula will be the party’s candidate in the coming presidential elections later this year, was referring to the possibility the pre-candidate was again indicted on corruption charges sometime next week in Porto Alegre, capital of the Rio Grande do Sul state.
A regional court on 24 January will revoke or confirm the former president’s sentence of nine years and a half of prison for passive corruption and money laundering, in one of the many cases involving the Operation Lava Jato linked to the Petrobras skimming by politicians, company staff and construction companies.
The final sentencing is decisive since the court could ratify or even increase the conviction of the former president who is leading in opinion polls in vote intention for the presidential election in October, and could thus be impeded to run.
The Brazilian legal system states that whoever in convicted on a second hearing can no longer compete for elected posts. Besides, Lula could also be imprisoned until all the appeals are decided.
In the interview, Hoffmann who was also head of ex president Dilma Rousseff cabinet and her husband Information minister, underlined that Lula da Silva has been indicted for political reasons so that “he can’t run and be re-elected president of Brazil”.
The senator also insisted that if that was the case this would not impede Lula from running in the elections because the PT will present all possible appeals to the electoral court authorities.
Finally Gleisi Hoffmann underlined that she trusts Lula will be absolved because “this is the only possible way to rescue the credibility and seriousness of the Brazilian Justice and show to the world that in Brazil the judiciary branch is independent”.
Mercopress