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Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was released from prison on Friday (November 8th) in Curitiba. But he is not yet at the end of his legal troubles. Three questions to Laurent Vidal, Center for Research on Colonial and Contemporary Brazil (CRBC / EHESS).
Lula was cheered by a crowd of supporters when he was released from prison on Friday. The former Brazilian president was jailed in April 2018, after being sentenced to eight years and ten months in prison for corruption. But the Supreme Federal Court put an end to the mandatory imprisonment of convicts until all their appeals are exhausted, which paved the way for this release.
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RFI: The former leader of the Workers Party is free. Is he therefore free from any legal proceedings?
Laurent Vidal: It's a temporary release. It is while waiting for all the procedures to come to an end. We must not be mistaken about the issue; what the Supreme Federal Court decided was that one could not start one's sentence in prison until all the remedies had been completed. So Lula just got out of jail, that is, he made a request to the judge who was handling her case, and she allowed her out. But that is very clear on this, for the moment it is absolutely not freed from any charge. There are several ongoing proceedings organized by Lula's defense, we do not know how long it can take. This can be quite long.
This temporary liberation is therefore primarily symbolic?
There is a discrepancy between the legal reality of this decision, which does not change the substance of the case - it remains, for the moment, under the indictment of a prison - and on the other side this very strong emotion. The latter refers to an extremely strong expectation and also, I would say, the feeling of partial or partial justice, in the sense that other political parties, too, have to deal with corruption procedures and that few people have been charged. That is, there has been some kind of judicial harassment against Lula's person. And very clearly, many Brazilians found this absolutely unacceptable. Today, this release is experienced as a true liberation.
New hope for his followers?
Lula, it's something. The person today has given way to the "character". Being in prison makes him a myth that is coming out. He explains, in interviews he gave when he was in prison, that his person does not matter. What matters are the ideas, the defense of the weakest, of the people; it is this hope of a more just world, which suddenly regains its vigor. After almost a year of Bolsonaro government, these are constant calls. If it's not for revenge, at least we get the Brazilians against each other, there's a call to violence. That's all this government. And suddenly, here comes someone who comes out with words of peace, appeasement. It is fascinating, because we are not dealing with a government that seeks to appease anything.