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Lula will remain in jail for a good season, although if she wanted to, in a few days she could continue serving her sentence in house prison, because a sixth of the sentence has already passed between bars. This Monday the former Brazilian president responded to the request of the Prosecutor's Office flatly.

"I do not change my dignity for my freedom," he says in a handwritten letter released by his lawyers. "All the solicitors of Operation Lava Jato really should do is apologize to the Brazilian people, the millions of unemployed and my family for the damage they have done to democracy, justice and the country," he says.

Lula remarks that he does not accept that his rights and his freedom be haggled, and that it is the prosecutors who are "imprisoned for his lies", because he has already shown that the accusations are false. For the former president, before the errors of the Prosecutor and Judge Sérgio Moro (current Minister of Justice of the Bolsonaro Government) it is up to the Supreme Court to correct the situation and acquit him.

The leader of the Workers' Party (PT) had already hinted in recent statements that he will only leave his cell in the Superintendence of the Federal Police of Curitiba when his process is annulled and he is declared innocent. He came to ironize saying he was not willing to wear an electronic ankle brace to be at home because he is not a dove.

Lula has been in prison since April 2018, serving a sentence of eight years and ten months in jail for crimes of passive corruption and money laundering. He is accused of having received a triplex on the beach from OAS, one of the Petrobras contractors. According to the indictment, it was a gift for favors rendered within the corrupt plot. Lula always denied that the apartment was his, remarking that so far there is no evidence, beyond incriminating testimonies.

Lula's strategy is to strengthen the image of a martyr and tighten the rope against the prosecutors of Operation Lava Jato, increasingly worn out. The story of the leftist leader gained strength in recent months, thanks to the leaks of The Intercept newspaper. Conversations hacked by Judge Moro and prosecutors show that there was collaboration between the parties to corner Lula and that even the chief prosecutor, Deltan Dallagnol, doubted the evidence they were going to present to denounce him.

It is expected that in the coming weeks the Federal Supreme Court, the highest judicial body in the country and the last instance to appeal to, decides on the appeal of Lula's defense that asks for the entire process to be annulled. Argue that he was vitiated from the beginning and that Moro never acted impartially.

Apart from that decisive moment, another decision that the Supreme made last week that could decant the future of Lula. The judges of this court understood that the prisoners of Operation Lava Jato should have the right to a final defense after the accusations made by the reporters who confessed crimes to reduce their sentence.

Until now, the reporters had the final word, but if the judges finally understand that the defendants should have one last chance, dozens of cases could be annulled, including Lula's conviction.

Meanwhile, the opposition managed to get the National Congress to launch an investigative commission to clarify whether there was "violation of constitutional principles and the rule of law" in the case of the former plaintiff who also recently received a visit from the National Rights Council Humans, an independent body but attached to the Brazilian Government.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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  • Brazil
  • Lula da silva
  • Corruption

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