• Brazil.Lula da Silva comes out of jail pulled by her faithful and launches the first darts to Bolsonaro
  • Brazil Bolsonaro, after the release of Lula: "Do not give ammunition to the scoundrel"

Two years ago, when the anti-corruption machinery of Operation Lava Jato is still running at full steam, former Republic Attorney Rodrigo Janot filed one of the toughest complaints against the dome of the Workers Party (PT). He accused former presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff and other party leaders of integrating a criminal organization that for years emptied the coffers of the Petrobras oil company to illegally finance the party.

This Thursday, Judge Marcus Vinicius Reis Bastos, of the Federal Justice of Brasilia, acquitted the two former presidents, threw out that complaint for "lack of evidence" and criticized it harshly: "It is an attempt to criminalize political activity", assured.

"It adopts a certain suspicion (that of the installation of a criminal organization that lasted until the end of the government of former president Dilma Rousseff presenting it as the 'truth of the facts', without even taking the job of pointing out the essential elements that characterize the crime ", emphasizes the judge in the decision.

In addition to Lula and Rousseff, former Economy Ministers Antonio Palocci and Guido Mantega and former party former João Vaccari Neto were also acquitted. The three were implicated in other corruption cases and went to jail at some point, although the treasurer is the only one still in prison.

In October, the Federal Public Ministry had already requested the acquittal of all those involved because they considered that there were no elements that made up the supposed organization.

With this decision, Lula adds in a few days one of lime and one of sand. Last week, Justice sentenced him in second instance to 17 years in prison for the case of the Atibaia estate, a country house that would have been reformed by Petrobras contractors as thanks for Lula's efforts to get them juicy contracts.

In addition, the former president has another 12-year sentence for the case of Guarujá's apartment, which took him to prison. Lula began to fulfill that sentence, until the Federal Supreme Court decided that it is unconstitutional for someone to be in prison when they can still resort to other instances. Therefore, it is very unlikely that he will return to prison in the short term.

The leader of the Brazilian left is said to be innocent and a victim of a judicial persecution, and does not rule out being a presidential candidate in 2022, although in order for Justice to do so he would have to annul the two firm sentences that already weigh against him.

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  • Dilma Rousseff
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