Moro Slipped on Banana Peel, say Court Ministers
The ministers from the Federal Supreme Court and Federal Supreme Justice Court reckon that the PT caused Moro to make a mistake. For them, the judge broke the law when he ordered the Federal Police to disobey Lula’s release order.
Some ministers were in favor and others opposed Chief Judge Rogério Favreto’s concession of a Habeas Corpus for ex-President Lulz Inácio Lula da Silva. There is one thing, however, that few disagree with: lower court judge Sérgio Moro was wrong in trying to interfere in the case.
According to the Folha de São Paulo newspaper, the superior court ministers believe that the PT succeeded in exposing Moro’s volunteerism, strengthening their argument that he is not an impartial judge in the cases involving the ex-President. For the Ministers of the Federal Supreme Court and the Federal Supreme Justice Court, judge Sergio Moro slipped on a banana peel thrown by PT party members by reacting to the court order.
The ministers consider that the PT succeeded in causing Moro to make a mistake. They believe that the judge broke the law both in ordering that the Federal Police disobey Lula’s release order in an affront to the Judiciary hierarchy, and when he worked to mobilize other Fourth Federal Regional Court judges to overturn the decision.
For the Ministers of the two highest Brazilian courts, Moro made a mistake in commiting insurgency and his actions will be judged in the National Justice Council and during appeals to the higher courts submitted by Lula’s defence team.
This article originally appeared Fórum and was translated by Brasil Wire. It can be seen in its original Portuguese here.
http://www.brasilwire.com/moro-slipped- ... ministers/
Brazil
Re: Brazil
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Brazil
Brazil: Lula Absolved of Obstruction of Justice Charges, but Kept in Prison
Published 12 July 2018
Former international director of Petrobras, Nestor Cervero, said Lula never asked him for any type of favoritism.
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been absolved of the charge of obstruction of justice by judge Ricardo Leito of the 10th Federal Court of Brasilia.
RELATED:
Brazil: Imprisoned Lula Maintains Lead in Presidental Polls
Lula was accused by former senator Delcidio do Amaral of attempting to impede or alter the testimony of former international director of Petrobras, Nestor Cervero, who was sentenced to prison on charges of corruption and money laundering in the Car Wash investigations. However, Brazil's state prosecution requested that he be absolved of the accusation.
Do Amaral's accusation against Lula came during a plea bargain deal with attorney Marcelo Miller. As a result of his testimony, do Amaral was releaed from prison.
Cervero said, during his own testimony, that Lula never asked him for any type of favoritism.
Despite being absolved of this instance, Lula remains in prison, where he has been held since April 7, over alleged charges of corruption that investigators have yet to provide evidence for.
The news comes just days after Appeal judge Rogerio Favreto of the Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region based in Porto Alegre accepted a habeas corpus request filed by Lula's Workers' Party and ordered that he be released.
However, the court's president judge Thompson Flores ruled that the case returns to appeal judge Joao Pedro Gebran Neto, therefore, the decision to maintain Lula in prison remains valid.
Despite his imprisonment, an event that many legal experts and observers attribute to lawfare and a salacious mainstream media campaign ,Lula has topped every 2018 electoral poll conducted by Vox Populi, Ibope, Datafolha, Data Poder 360, Instituto Parana, the National Confederation of Transportation/MDA and Ipsos.
His two terms in office were marked by a slew of social programs, lifting millions of Brazilians out of poverty and removing the country from the United Nations World Hunger Map. He left office with a record approval rating of 83 percent in 2011, according to Datafolha.
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/ ... -0018.html
********************
Brazil: Lula Vows Not To Compromise Dignity On 'Free Lula' Day
Published 13 July 2018
Thousands gathered in cities across Brazil to demand the former president be released from prison on the 'National Day of Struggle to Free Lula.'
Thousands of Brazilians mobilized on Friday to demand the release of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, as the embattled Workers' Party leader declared he will never sacrifice his dignity for his freedom.
"I'm not going to exchange my dignity for my freedom," Lula told his former minister Celso Amorim. The imprisoned leader said his opponents wish to "prevent the people from hearing" what he has to say.
#LulaLivreJá | La Plaza Cinelândia, en el centro de Rio de Janeiro, ya reúne a centenas de apoyadores del expresidente Lula. #LulaLivre pic.twitter.com/0wAzUFP7eT
— André Vieira (@AndreteleSUR) July 13, 2018
Meanwhile, thousands gathered in various cities across Brazil to demand Lula be released from prison in Curitiba, where he is being held. The protests were being held to mark the 'National Day of Struggle to Free Lula.'
Lula began his 12-year prison sentence for alleged corruption – charges he vehemently denies and says are politically motivated to keep him out of the looming presidential elections – in April.
In early July, a regional court judge ruled that Lula should be released until his appeals run out, but the decision was shot down less than a day later by a federal court, shattering the raised hopes of millions.
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/ ... -0017.html
Published 12 July 2018
Former international director of Petrobras, Nestor Cervero, said Lula never asked him for any type of favoritism.
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been absolved of the charge of obstruction of justice by judge Ricardo Leito of the 10th Federal Court of Brasilia.
RELATED:
Brazil: Imprisoned Lula Maintains Lead in Presidental Polls
Lula was accused by former senator Delcidio do Amaral of attempting to impede or alter the testimony of former international director of Petrobras, Nestor Cervero, who was sentenced to prison on charges of corruption and money laundering in the Car Wash investigations. However, Brazil's state prosecution requested that he be absolved of the accusation.
Do Amaral's accusation against Lula came during a plea bargain deal with attorney Marcelo Miller. As a result of his testimony, do Amaral was releaed from prison.
Cervero said, during his own testimony, that Lula never asked him for any type of favoritism.
Despite being absolved of this instance, Lula remains in prison, where he has been held since April 7, over alleged charges of corruption that investigators have yet to provide evidence for.
The news comes just days after Appeal judge Rogerio Favreto of the Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region based in Porto Alegre accepted a habeas corpus request filed by Lula's Workers' Party and ordered that he be released.
However, the court's president judge Thompson Flores ruled that the case returns to appeal judge Joao Pedro Gebran Neto, therefore, the decision to maintain Lula in prison remains valid.
Despite his imprisonment, an event that many legal experts and observers attribute to lawfare and a salacious mainstream media campaign ,Lula has topped every 2018 electoral poll conducted by Vox Populi, Ibope, Datafolha, Data Poder 360, Instituto Parana, the National Confederation of Transportation/MDA and Ipsos.
His two terms in office were marked by a slew of social programs, lifting millions of Brazilians out of poverty and removing the country from the United Nations World Hunger Map. He left office with a record approval rating of 83 percent in 2011, according to Datafolha.
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/ ... -0018.html
********************
Brazil: Lula Vows Not To Compromise Dignity On 'Free Lula' Day
Published 13 July 2018
Thousands gathered in cities across Brazil to demand the former president be released from prison on the 'National Day of Struggle to Free Lula.'
Thousands of Brazilians mobilized on Friday to demand the release of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, as the embattled Workers' Party leader declared he will never sacrifice his dignity for his freedom.
"I'm not going to exchange my dignity for my freedom," Lula told his former minister Celso Amorim. The imprisoned leader said his opponents wish to "prevent the people from hearing" what he has to say.
#LulaLivreJá | La Plaza Cinelândia, en el centro de Rio de Janeiro, ya reúne a centenas de apoyadores del expresidente Lula. #LulaLivre pic.twitter.com/0wAzUFP7eT
— André Vieira (@AndreteleSUR) July 13, 2018
Meanwhile, thousands gathered in various cities across Brazil to demand Lula be released from prison in Curitiba, where he is being held. The protests were being held to mark the 'National Day of Struggle to Free Lula.'
Lula began his 12-year prison sentence for alleged corruption – charges he vehemently denies and says are politically motivated to keep him out of the looming presidential elections – in April.
In early July, a regional court judge ruled that Lula should be released until his appeals run out, but the decision was shot down less than a day later by a federal court, shattering the raised hopes of millions.
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/ ... -0017.html
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Brazil
Lula’s Kafkaesque Imprisonment: Defense Lawyer Valeska Martins Speaks
“The law can destroy reputations, it can destroy assets, it can destroy freedom and it can end people’s lives. So when it is misused it is extremely violent.”
by Brian Mier
On July 8th, 2018, Brazil’s 4th Regional Federal Court Chief Judge Rogerio Favreto ordered ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s immediate release from prison. From a vacation resort town in Portugal where he was enjoying his holidays, Judge Sergio Moro, a lower court judge and hero to the Brazilian far right who has been working closely with the US Department of Justice for several years, immediately ordered the Federal Police to disobey the release order. It was just one more chapter in a Kafkaesque process which has resulted in the imprisonment of the center-left former president on frivolous charges with no material evidence during an election year in which he is the undisputed front-runner for the presidency, despite being held in solitary confinement and barred from giving interviews for the past three months.
During a press conference at the Geneva Press Club on July 3, British barrister and Queen’s Counsel Geoffrey Robertson and Lula’s defense lawyer Valeska Texeira Martins revealed that, although the Brazilian government recently requested the UN Human Rights Committee to halt its investigation into ex-President Lula’s arrest, it was rejected and the investigation is moving forwards.
The UNHRC is looking at whether Lula was denied his right to a fair trail with an impartial judge. Issues that contributed to the Committee’s decision to investigate the case include the fact that Judge Sergio Moro admitted to breaking the law by illegally wiretapping Lula’s defense lawyers but was allowed to continue presiding over his own investigation. The Committee is also investigating whether Lula’s political right to campaign is being denied, as other candidates are publicly criticizing him and he is not being allowed to respond.
Meanwhile, the Anglo press has continually published misinformation about Lula’s case, why he is in jail, and the fact that he is officially registered by the PT Party as its pre-candidate for the presidency.
Lula’s defense lawyer, Valeska Martins contends that Lula is victim of a political persecution masked in legal processes which she calls Lawfare. In the following interview, she explains why.
What is Lawfare?
The law can destroy reputations, it can destroy assets, it can destroy freedom and it can end people’s lives. So when it is misused it is extremely violent. Lawfare is the abuse and misuse of the law in a violent manner to conduct political persecution. We are able to identify all of the dimensions, tactics, and strategies typically used in Lawfare in the persecution of Lula. The prosecutors did not produce one single piece of evidence or one single logical accusation against him, even on that day when they invited all the mainstream media outlets to a hotel and made that sensationalist PowerPoint presentation with the clear intention of achieving a political goal. The fact is that making someone a defendant or putting him under criminal investigation is already a form of punishment. Basically it is a battle, a legal war with the goal of dehumanizing and defaming a political enemy. So, when people say we are politicizing the defense, this is a lie because, in reality, this is a technical diagnosis. When we understand that, technically speaking, there is no material evidence, that the accusations are illogical, that the legal arguments are misrepresented, we come to the unequivocal conclusion that we are dealing with a process of Lawfare.
Do you think that the foreign journalists understood the judgment against Lula?
It is easy to get lost in the details and just repeat what the prosecutors say, ignoring the defense, or to get stuck in a ‘he said she said,’ because the language is very technical. This causes a huge barrier for people who are trying to understand how this political persecution is taking place.
The biggest problem with Lawfare is the following: a political fight is transferred into the legal realm so the only people who understand what is happening are lawyers and judges. Due to the technical nature of legal jargon, reporters have problems making any kind of critical analysis. It is literally lost in the translation.
When Lula was arrested on April 7th, most English language newspapers that covered the story falsely insinuated that his arrest was connected to a bribery scheme involving Petrobras. Although prosecutors mentioned this to the press in 2016, this charge was not including in Lula’s judgement, which condemns him for committing “undetermined acts”. What do you think that the Anglo newspapers are doing wrong in the way they are writing about Lula’s case and in the way they are speaking to and quoting you and the other defense attorneys?
It is completely unequal. We have been holding national and international press conferences for two years now, since the beginning of the case. We have carefully explained and shown all of the material evidence and all of the testimonies and explained, in minute detail, everything that enables us to show former President Lula’s innocence beyond the shadow of a doubt. The fact is that the foreign press ignored us and constantly repeated an accusation that was made long ago, in September 2016. After that accusation was made there was a trial. During the trial prosecutors were unable to prove that Lula committed one single act of corruption. This is why the sentence convicts him for ‘undetermined acts’. This alone is something that you would think would draw the attention of the international press, because no other country in the world convicts people for ‘undetermined acts’. They are unable to explain what the act of corruption was. In relation to Petrobras, we have continually repeated the fact that Judge Sergio Moro himself admitted, in his decision regarding the motion for clarification, that he never said or accused former President Lula of receiving any illicit funds from Petrobras. This statement should annul the Thirteenth Court’s jurisdiction over the case and the entire case should be dismissed. When you have a trial in a court that has no jurisdiction over it, the case is dismissed. Another reason why there is no “Petrobras connection” to Lula’s arrest is that there are no acts of corruption – he wasn’t convicted for corruption, he was convicted for undetermined acts. In relation to the apartment, they were unable to prove ownership and they even speak of an “attribution” – a concept which does not exist in legal terms. There is no such thing as the “attribution” of an apartment in Brazilian law. So I wish that the press would start acting more critically and conduct critical analysis of the facts surrounding the case. After all, the facts overturn any and all accusations of money laundering and corruption against former President Lula, which in turn transforms this entire proceeding into an unfair trial. Consequently, they shouldn’t have the authority to put him in jail or bar him from running in the elections.
Are they showing any more fairness, in your opinion, in the way they are writing about the new accusations against Lula?
It is the same modus operandi and this is a common Lawfare tactic: the prosecution presents so many allegations and convoluted charges against a political rival that it becomes difficult for journalists to address or even understand them. The new charges are related to the building where the Lula Institute operates and Lula’s frequent use of a country house and they are using the same methodology from the previous case.
There is a huge legal irregularity in all of the Lava Jato cases involving Odebrecht Engineering Company: the Company’s MyWebDay accounting software system and the way Sergio Moro’s task force is using it. At first the prosecutors said they didn’t have the system, then they said they had it, then they said they didn’t have it. Finally, they said they were “recreating” what was in the system and were making it publicly available. This is when we discovered that they had created the entire system themselves and that it was not the original system used by Odebrecht. They created it with different security parameters, opened it in places where it shouldn’t have been opened without taking security measures and new archives may have been inserted into or deleted from it. The Lava Jato task force are using this system as the basis for all of their accusations, not only in Brazil but across Latin America and Africa. The system has obviously been corrupted but journalists, including foreign ones, are not asking any questions about it. They are also using Excel spread sheets in the trials. Where do they come from? Are they reliable? How can they use these Excel spreadsheets in countries like Brazil, Ecuador and Peru to convict people for crimes without explaining to anyone where they come from? The defense teams from all of the different cases have been explaining this all along in regular press conferences, so it seems like there hasn’t been much desire on the part of journalists to establish any kind of certainty related to these cases. Instead, they seem to just repeat everything the prosecutors say at face value.
Odebrecht Engineering company was one of the largest employers in Brazil when the Lava Jato investigation froze its operations in 2015, causing around 500,000 immediate layoffs in the construction industry. This had a negative effect on the Brazilian economy. Why do you think that Odebrecht was not treated as too big to fail, like Goldman Sachs and Volkswagen were when executives in those companies were embroiled in mega-corruption scandals? Why was the approach in Brazil different from the US and Germany?
It is hard to explain the reasons behind this different approach but, without a doubt, the company should have been kept in full operational mode and the jobs should have been preserved. If the executives did anything illicit, they should be punished. This is what every civilized country around the world would do with a company that is as strategic for its economy as Odebrecht was for Brazil. After all, it was not only important in the engineering and defense industries, but it held a 50% share in the petrochemical giant Braskem which will now also be dismantled and alienated. In other words, they are dismantling a company that was an internationally competitive, national symbol. Regardless of who committed any illicit acts, the company itself should not have been punished in this manner, without a doubt. We can see that there are ulterior motives behind the way these corruption accusations are being used to dismantle certain companies that are strategic for Brazil. I think we will have to talk more about this in the future when this story is really unveiled. Brazilians should demand an explanation from the Government for why they are dismantling these companies. Even if the judiciary is to blame and has created this situation, the Government should be treating these companies as too big to fail, as the US does. Today we have some answers but we continue to have a lot more questions about the Lava Jato investigation and what its real goals were.
What are some of these questions?
For example, regarding the informal cooperation between the US Department of Justice and Brazilian public prosecutors, what evidence was exchanged? What was its role in building the case and convicting President Lula, which American prosecutors spoke about in 2017 at the Atlantic Council? I think we need to understand this. Brazil needs to understand more about this informal cooperation which has been happening since the beginning of Operation Lava Jato.
Another question is why the Lava Jato investigation is allowed to operate unlawfully. It is an operation that is, exceptionally, not required to comply with general regulations. Lava Jato has extensively violated peoples’ human rights and the task force engages in illegal behavior without any fear of reprisal or suspension. For example, a total of 227 bench warrants were issued. These are 227 testimonies that were illegally and unconstitutionally taken by force. So what is happening to these 227 people? These were 227 acts of violence. The police and the prosecutors pulled these people out of their houses at 6 AM to give depositions that they were not legally obliged to make.
In a recent article Tacla Duran, who is a former lawyer from Odebrecht, accuses the Lava Jato task force of excluding or destroying evidence beneficial to the defense. In the United States this is a violation of the Brady Rules. US Department of Justice officials have been caught before violating Brady Rules in the United States. Do you think that, if this really happened, the idea to destroy evidence beneficial to the defense came from the Americans in the DOJ?
Regarding what happened in the United States, I’m not familiar with those cases. I think that Tacla Duran can and should be heard as a witness in the case against former President Lula. He talks about the destruction of evidence and explains how the MyWebDay system information is not trustworthy and how it should not be used as evidence in any legal proceeding related to Odebrecht. What we see in our case are obstacles to requesting evidence. We requested a forensic expert report in order to follow the money in Lula’s case. It would serve as evidence for the defense because it would show no connection between Petrobras and any asset or monetary value in any of his bank accounts. So we requested this forensic report and it was denied. When we found out about the bonds that had been issued and the fiduciary assignment agreement, which would definitely explain the ownership of the apartment, we specifically requested these documents to be included in the case files. They would prove the president’s innocence once and for all. This was also denied. So we have serious problems obtaining key evidence. We don’t have a Discovery system here in Brazil like you have in the United States, so obtaining exculpatory evidence is practically impossible if you don’t have an impartial prosecution. The judge has the power to deny access depending on what you request. Another challenge for us has been to to find out exactly what we have to request. We discovered a large amount of evidence on our own through due diligence in the Notary Public offices, but it was all completely ignored by the court. The evidence was not addressed in the judgment of conviction. It was simply ignored. We definitely see that exculpatory pieces of evidence have been hidden in our case, something which is a violation of the Brady Principle in the United States. This is exactly what we see in the case regarding the beach apartment, where the Federal Police and Federal Prosecutors conducting the investigation do not bring the exculpatory evidence into the files, seriously harming the defense. Concerning Odebrecht, we were not allowed to access the evidence through full and unrestricted access to Odebrecht’s systems. Even in the hearings, we aren’t allowed to ask questions to the witnesses according to the logical objectives of the defense. Some of our questions were denied for no reason, with no justification, which violates the principle of the equality of arms. This lack of equal treatment between the defense and the prosecution and the lack of rules, including procedural ones, seriously compromises the work of the defense, not only Lula’s but of any defendants’ in Brazil.
A recent news story came out saying that the Car Wash prosecution team wiretapped your office phones. Is this a crime in Brazil?
It is a crime in Brazil and anywhere in the world. This is what happened: in 2016 they bugged our central telephone line, which relays the conversations of 25 lawyers, our office staff and our clients. When the phone company found this out they sent Judge Moro a notice and he ignored it. Then the telephone company sent Judge Moro a second notice and, once again, he ignored it. When this went public back in 2016, Sergio Moro was admonished by the Supreme Court for illegally tapping and leaking confidential phone conversations between lawyers and clients. Moro said it had been a mistake and that he would destroy the audio files if the procedures returned to his jurisdiction. Two years later, when the case returned to his jurisdiction, we were surprised by the fact that he deliberately gave access to all the audio files for all of the defendants’ lawyers, including our phone calls. I believe that audio files of 411 of our conversations were made available. We fought for them to be destroyed because they contained confidential information about our lawyers, other employees and our clients. To our surprise, when we sent a lawyer over to listen to the files and verify what was in them, he found a chart that a Federal Agent had used, based on our phone conversations, to map out every potential move that would be made by the defense. For example, “Cristiano Martins spoke with the lawyer Nilo Batista and they decided that if X happens they will file a petition for habeas corpus. If Y happens they will file a petition for a writ of mandamus.” They mapped out Lula’s defense so that they could anticipate all of its moves. There is no precedent like this in the world. There is no other precedent like this in any civilized country. There is a case in Spain where a judge wire tapped a lawyer and he was suspended for 11 years. The idea that they were allowed to monitor the defense through its central phone line and anticipate its strategy by mapping out its moves – this is something that really needs to be explained and somebody needs to held accountable for it. The Lava Jato task force has to explain how this type of monitoring, which enables them to anticipate every move of the defense, can be acceptable in a democracy. No State that operates according to the rule of law allows this type of behavior. You do not abide by the rule of law when this type of defense rights violation is allowed to happen. We complained about this to the United Nations and the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) and we are waiting for reparation. There are many examples of the Lava Jato team breaking the law. Some of them really stand out but they are all equally violent and crass.
Why wasn’t Judge Moro pulled off the case if he admitted he broke the law?
In March 2016 the story broke and the audio recordings [between President Dilma Rousseff and Lula] were released. At that time, 19 lawyers filed a complaint against Judge Moro in the 4th Federal Regional Court (TRF-4) and there was that famous, 13-1 judgment, in which they ruled that Judge Sergio Moro, due to the exceptionalism of the Lava Jato case, did not have to follow the general rules. Therefore, the court authorized the Lava Jato task force to operate outside of the law, as a trial of exception. The Lava Jato operation was authorized by the TRF-4 to operate above the law. Raul Zaffaroni, the famous Argentinian legal scholar and Inter-American Human Rights Court Judge, describes this decision by the TRF-4 as an international legal scandal. There is no other precedent in the world in which a court has allowed a prosecutor/judge to act illegally or above the law. And the ruling was made by thirteen judges to one.
What do you think will happen to Lula now? Some people say that he could be released soon. Do you think they will keep him in jail until after the elections?
He should not even be in jail. The TRF-4 used a precedent to automatically arrest Lula after the second appeal. The precedent they cited, however, is from a Supreme Court ruling which does not mandate automatic imprisonment. It speaks of the “possibility of imprisonment” after the second appeal is denied, only if it is justified. In that case we filed a habeas corpus against this order with the Superior Justice Court and, afterwards, the Federal Supreme Court. We had 10 justices discussing the general concept of the possibility of arresting someone after the second appeal but nobody was talking about the actual habeas corpus. [Supreme Court Minister] Rosa Weber was the only justice who addressed the actual habeas corpus. So there was a distortion in the judgment and we have appealed to have it reanalyzed. Regardless, the arrest warrant was issued before we had exhausted all legal remedies before the Appellate Court (TRF4). We understand that Lula’s imprisonment was absolutely arbitrary. Furthermore, his arrest is having nefarious consequences for the Nation. A report came out in the press the other day stating that, in São Paulo alone, 14,000 people have now been arrested because of the ruling on ex-President Lula which enabled imprisonment after the second appeal is denied. Last week we filed two precautionary measures so that a stay motion could be imposed on the special appeals that we filed with the Superior Justice Court and the Federal Supreme Court. The special appeals aim to reanalyze the constitutional violations that occurred during the prosecution. We are asking the Supreme Justice Court to consider the measure due to the clear violations of federal laws, and the Federal Supreme Court to consider the measure as result of the clear and gross violations of Lula´s constitutional guarantees. We are hopeful because this procedure was full of irregularities from start to finish and the proof of innocence is extremely blatant. All of the evidence points to ex-President Lula’s innocence. Regarding his right to run for office, our Constitution speaks of barring political rights only after all of the appeals processes have been denied and there is a final ruling. There is another law, called ficha limpa which could be used to justify denying his rights. I will not go into whether it is constitutional or not but in any event all international treaties which speak of barring people from running for office always speak of removal of political rights only if preceded by an fair, independent and impartial trial. It is clear that ex-President Lula did not have a fair, impartial and independent trial. This is why we filed a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee, which functions as a World Court for many nations [like Brazil, which signed the Optional Protocol] and this is why it has agreed to analyze the case and rule on whether Lula can run for office. So now we have a situation in Brazil in which if they deny Lula’s political rights through this unfair process and he is not allowed to participate in the elections, a World Court may rule that the electoral front-runner was illegally removed. It is a very worrying situation for the legitimacy of democracy in Brazil. His imprisonment is already violating his right to campaign. All of the other candidates are traveling around Brazil, doing interviews. Some of them are making false accusations against Lula and he is not being given the right to defend himself.
If he were guilty of anything, he would also deserve a fair trial, but President Lula is the victim of injustice because there is not one piece of material evidence against him. But when everyone says there is no proof its wrong. We on the defense don’t say that there is no proof because we proved that he is innocent. The existing material evidence proves his innocence. So we have a lot of hope and we will continue fighting until justice is made so that his freedom is decreed and so that he can run for office, which is his right.
http://www.brasilwire.com/lulas-kafkaes ... ns-speaks/
“The law can destroy reputations, it can destroy assets, it can destroy freedom and it can end people’s lives. So when it is misused it is extremely violent.”
by Brian Mier
On July 8th, 2018, Brazil’s 4th Regional Federal Court Chief Judge Rogerio Favreto ordered ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s immediate release from prison. From a vacation resort town in Portugal where he was enjoying his holidays, Judge Sergio Moro, a lower court judge and hero to the Brazilian far right who has been working closely with the US Department of Justice for several years, immediately ordered the Federal Police to disobey the release order. It was just one more chapter in a Kafkaesque process which has resulted in the imprisonment of the center-left former president on frivolous charges with no material evidence during an election year in which he is the undisputed front-runner for the presidency, despite being held in solitary confinement and barred from giving interviews for the past three months.
During a press conference at the Geneva Press Club on July 3, British barrister and Queen’s Counsel Geoffrey Robertson and Lula’s defense lawyer Valeska Texeira Martins revealed that, although the Brazilian government recently requested the UN Human Rights Committee to halt its investigation into ex-President Lula’s arrest, it was rejected and the investigation is moving forwards.
The UNHRC is looking at whether Lula was denied his right to a fair trail with an impartial judge. Issues that contributed to the Committee’s decision to investigate the case include the fact that Judge Sergio Moro admitted to breaking the law by illegally wiretapping Lula’s defense lawyers but was allowed to continue presiding over his own investigation. The Committee is also investigating whether Lula’s political right to campaign is being denied, as other candidates are publicly criticizing him and he is not being allowed to respond.
Meanwhile, the Anglo press has continually published misinformation about Lula’s case, why he is in jail, and the fact that he is officially registered by the PT Party as its pre-candidate for the presidency.
Lula’s defense lawyer, Valeska Martins contends that Lula is victim of a political persecution masked in legal processes which she calls Lawfare. In the following interview, she explains why.
What is Lawfare?
The law can destroy reputations, it can destroy assets, it can destroy freedom and it can end people’s lives. So when it is misused it is extremely violent. Lawfare is the abuse and misuse of the law in a violent manner to conduct political persecution. We are able to identify all of the dimensions, tactics, and strategies typically used in Lawfare in the persecution of Lula. The prosecutors did not produce one single piece of evidence or one single logical accusation against him, even on that day when they invited all the mainstream media outlets to a hotel and made that sensationalist PowerPoint presentation with the clear intention of achieving a political goal. The fact is that making someone a defendant or putting him under criminal investigation is already a form of punishment. Basically it is a battle, a legal war with the goal of dehumanizing and defaming a political enemy. So, when people say we are politicizing the defense, this is a lie because, in reality, this is a technical diagnosis. When we understand that, technically speaking, there is no material evidence, that the accusations are illogical, that the legal arguments are misrepresented, we come to the unequivocal conclusion that we are dealing with a process of Lawfare.
Do you think that the foreign journalists understood the judgment against Lula?
It is easy to get lost in the details and just repeat what the prosecutors say, ignoring the defense, or to get stuck in a ‘he said she said,’ because the language is very technical. This causes a huge barrier for people who are trying to understand how this political persecution is taking place.
The biggest problem with Lawfare is the following: a political fight is transferred into the legal realm so the only people who understand what is happening are lawyers and judges. Due to the technical nature of legal jargon, reporters have problems making any kind of critical analysis. It is literally lost in the translation.
When Lula was arrested on April 7th, most English language newspapers that covered the story falsely insinuated that his arrest was connected to a bribery scheme involving Petrobras. Although prosecutors mentioned this to the press in 2016, this charge was not including in Lula’s judgement, which condemns him for committing “undetermined acts”. What do you think that the Anglo newspapers are doing wrong in the way they are writing about Lula’s case and in the way they are speaking to and quoting you and the other defense attorneys?
It is completely unequal. We have been holding national and international press conferences for two years now, since the beginning of the case. We have carefully explained and shown all of the material evidence and all of the testimonies and explained, in minute detail, everything that enables us to show former President Lula’s innocence beyond the shadow of a doubt. The fact is that the foreign press ignored us and constantly repeated an accusation that was made long ago, in September 2016. After that accusation was made there was a trial. During the trial prosecutors were unable to prove that Lula committed one single act of corruption. This is why the sentence convicts him for ‘undetermined acts’. This alone is something that you would think would draw the attention of the international press, because no other country in the world convicts people for ‘undetermined acts’. They are unable to explain what the act of corruption was. In relation to Petrobras, we have continually repeated the fact that Judge Sergio Moro himself admitted, in his decision regarding the motion for clarification, that he never said or accused former President Lula of receiving any illicit funds from Petrobras. This statement should annul the Thirteenth Court’s jurisdiction over the case and the entire case should be dismissed. When you have a trial in a court that has no jurisdiction over it, the case is dismissed. Another reason why there is no “Petrobras connection” to Lula’s arrest is that there are no acts of corruption – he wasn’t convicted for corruption, he was convicted for undetermined acts. In relation to the apartment, they were unable to prove ownership and they even speak of an “attribution” – a concept which does not exist in legal terms. There is no such thing as the “attribution” of an apartment in Brazilian law. So I wish that the press would start acting more critically and conduct critical analysis of the facts surrounding the case. After all, the facts overturn any and all accusations of money laundering and corruption against former President Lula, which in turn transforms this entire proceeding into an unfair trial. Consequently, they shouldn’t have the authority to put him in jail or bar him from running in the elections.
Are they showing any more fairness, in your opinion, in the way they are writing about the new accusations against Lula?
It is the same modus operandi and this is a common Lawfare tactic: the prosecution presents so many allegations and convoluted charges against a political rival that it becomes difficult for journalists to address or even understand them. The new charges are related to the building where the Lula Institute operates and Lula’s frequent use of a country house and they are using the same methodology from the previous case.
There is a huge legal irregularity in all of the Lava Jato cases involving Odebrecht Engineering Company: the Company’s MyWebDay accounting software system and the way Sergio Moro’s task force is using it. At first the prosecutors said they didn’t have the system, then they said they had it, then they said they didn’t have it. Finally, they said they were “recreating” what was in the system and were making it publicly available. This is when we discovered that they had created the entire system themselves and that it was not the original system used by Odebrecht. They created it with different security parameters, opened it in places where it shouldn’t have been opened without taking security measures and new archives may have been inserted into or deleted from it. The Lava Jato task force are using this system as the basis for all of their accusations, not only in Brazil but across Latin America and Africa. The system has obviously been corrupted but journalists, including foreign ones, are not asking any questions about it. They are also using Excel spread sheets in the trials. Where do they come from? Are they reliable? How can they use these Excel spreadsheets in countries like Brazil, Ecuador and Peru to convict people for crimes without explaining to anyone where they come from? The defense teams from all of the different cases have been explaining this all along in regular press conferences, so it seems like there hasn’t been much desire on the part of journalists to establish any kind of certainty related to these cases. Instead, they seem to just repeat everything the prosecutors say at face value.
Odebrecht Engineering company was one of the largest employers in Brazil when the Lava Jato investigation froze its operations in 2015, causing around 500,000 immediate layoffs in the construction industry. This had a negative effect on the Brazilian economy. Why do you think that Odebrecht was not treated as too big to fail, like Goldman Sachs and Volkswagen were when executives in those companies were embroiled in mega-corruption scandals? Why was the approach in Brazil different from the US and Germany?
It is hard to explain the reasons behind this different approach but, without a doubt, the company should have been kept in full operational mode and the jobs should have been preserved. If the executives did anything illicit, they should be punished. This is what every civilized country around the world would do with a company that is as strategic for its economy as Odebrecht was for Brazil. After all, it was not only important in the engineering and defense industries, but it held a 50% share in the petrochemical giant Braskem which will now also be dismantled and alienated. In other words, they are dismantling a company that was an internationally competitive, national symbol. Regardless of who committed any illicit acts, the company itself should not have been punished in this manner, without a doubt. We can see that there are ulterior motives behind the way these corruption accusations are being used to dismantle certain companies that are strategic for Brazil. I think we will have to talk more about this in the future when this story is really unveiled. Brazilians should demand an explanation from the Government for why they are dismantling these companies. Even if the judiciary is to blame and has created this situation, the Government should be treating these companies as too big to fail, as the US does. Today we have some answers but we continue to have a lot more questions about the Lava Jato investigation and what its real goals were.
What are some of these questions?
For example, regarding the informal cooperation between the US Department of Justice and Brazilian public prosecutors, what evidence was exchanged? What was its role in building the case and convicting President Lula, which American prosecutors spoke about in 2017 at the Atlantic Council? I think we need to understand this. Brazil needs to understand more about this informal cooperation which has been happening since the beginning of Operation Lava Jato.
Another question is why the Lava Jato investigation is allowed to operate unlawfully. It is an operation that is, exceptionally, not required to comply with general regulations. Lava Jato has extensively violated peoples’ human rights and the task force engages in illegal behavior without any fear of reprisal or suspension. For example, a total of 227 bench warrants were issued. These are 227 testimonies that were illegally and unconstitutionally taken by force. So what is happening to these 227 people? These were 227 acts of violence. The police and the prosecutors pulled these people out of their houses at 6 AM to give depositions that they were not legally obliged to make.
In a recent article Tacla Duran, who is a former lawyer from Odebrecht, accuses the Lava Jato task force of excluding or destroying evidence beneficial to the defense. In the United States this is a violation of the Brady Rules. US Department of Justice officials have been caught before violating Brady Rules in the United States. Do you think that, if this really happened, the idea to destroy evidence beneficial to the defense came from the Americans in the DOJ?
Regarding what happened in the United States, I’m not familiar with those cases. I think that Tacla Duran can and should be heard as a witness in the case against former President Lula. He talks about the destruction of evidence and explains how the MyWebDay system information is not trustworthy and how it should not be used as evidence in any legal proceeding related to Odebrecht. What we see in our case are obstacles to requesting evidence. We requested a forensic expert report in order to follow the money in Lula’s case. It would serve as evidence for the defense because it would show no connection between Petrobras and any asset or monetary value in any of his bank accounts. So we requested this forensic report and it was denied. When we found out about the bonds that had been issued and the fiduciary assignment agreement, which would definitely explain the ownership of the apartment, we specifically requested these documents to be included in the case files. They would prove the president’s innocence once and for all. This was also denied. So we have serious problems obtaining key evidence. We don’t have a Discovery system here in Brazil like you have in the United States, so obtaining exculpatory evidence is practically impossible if you don’t have an impartial prosecution. The judge has the power to deny access depending on what you request. Another challenge for us has been to to find out exactly what we have to request. We discovered a large amount of evidence on our own through due diligence in the Notary Public offices, but it was all completely ignored by the court. The evidence was not addressed in the judgment of conviction. It was simply ignored. We definitely see that exculpatory pieces of evidence have been hidden in our case, something which is a violation of the Brady Principle in the United States. This is exactly what we see in the case regarding the beach apartment, where the Federal Police and Federal Prosecutors conducting the investigation do not bring the exculpatory evidence into the files, seriously harming the defense. Concerning Odebrecht, we were not allowed to access the evidence through full and unrestricted access to Odebrecht’s systems. Even in the hearings, we aren’t allowed to ask questions to the witnesses according to the logical objectives of the defense. Some of our questions were denied for no reason, with no justification, which violates the principle of the equality of arms. This lack of equal treatment between the defense and the prosecution and the lack of rules, including procedural ones, seriously compromises the work of the defense, not only Lula’s but of any defendants’ in Brazil.
A recent news story came out saying that the Car Wash prosecution team wiretapped your office phones. Is this a crime in Brazil?
It is a crime in Brazil and anywhere in the world. This is what happened: in 2016 they bugged our central telephone line, which relays the conversations of 25 lawyers, our office staff and our clients. When the phone company found this out they sent Judge Moro a notice and he ignored it. Then the telephone company sent Judge Moro a second notice and, once again, he ignored it. When this went public back in 2016, Sergio Moro was admonished by the Supreme Court for illegally tapping and leaking confidential phone conversations between lawyers and clients. Moro said it had been a mistake and that he would destroy the audio files if the procedures returned to his jurisdiction. Two years later, when the case returned to his jurisdiction, we were surprised by the fact that he deliberately gave access to all the audio files for all of the defendants’ lawyers, including our phone calls. I believe that audio files of 411 of our conversations were made available. We fought for them to be destroyed because they contained confidential information about our lawyers, other employees and our clients. To our surprise, when we sent a lawyer over to listen to the files and verify what was in them, he found a chart that a Federal Agent had used, based on our phone conversations, to map out every potential move that would be made by the defense. For example, “Cristiano Martins spoke with the lawyer Nilo Batista and they decided that if X happens they will file a petition for habeas corpus. If Y happens they will file a petition for a writ of mandamus.” They mapped out Lula’s defense so that they could anticipate all of its moves. There is no precedent like this in the world. There is no other precedent like this in any civilized country. There is a case in Spain where a judge wire tapped a lawyer and he was suspended for 11 years. The idea that they were allowed to monitor the defense through its central phone line and anticipate its strategy by mapping out its moves – this is something that really needs to be explained and somebody needs to held accountable for it. The Lava Jato task force has to explain how this type of monitoring, which enables them to anticipate every move of the defense, can be acceptable in a democracy. No State that operates according to the rule of law allows this type of behavior. You do not abide by the rule of law when this type of defense rights violation is allowed to happen. We complained about this to the United Nations and the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) and we are waiting for reparation. There are many examples of the Lava Jato team breaking the law. Some of them really stand out but they are all equally violent and crass.
Why wasn’t Judge Moro pulled off the case if he admitted he broke the law?
In March 2016 the story broke and the audio recordings [between President Dilma Rousseff and Lula] were released. At that time, 19 lawyers filed a complaint against Judge Moro in the 4th Federal Regional Court (TRF-4) and there was that famous, 13-1 judgment, in which they ruled that Judge Sergio Moro, due to the exceptionalism of the Lava Jato case, did not have to follow the general rules. Therefore, the court authorized the Lava Jato task force to operate outside of the law, as a trial of exception. The Lava Jato operation was authorized by the TRF-4 to operate above the law. Raul Zaffaroni, the famous Argentinian legal scholar and Inter-American Human Rights Court Judge, describes this decision by the TRF-4 as an international legal scandal. There is no other precedent in the world in which a court has allowed a prosecutor/judge to act illegally or above the law. And the ruling was made by thirteen judges to one.
What do you think will happen to Lula now? Some people say that he could be released soon. Do you think they will keep him in jail until after the elections?
He should not even be in jail. The TRF-4 used a precedent to automatically arrest Lula after the second appeal. The precedent they cited, however, is from a Supreme Court ruling which does not mandate automatic imprisonment. It speaks of the “possibility of imprisonment” after the second appeal is denied, only if it is justified. In that case we filed a habeas corpus against this order with the Superior Justice Court and, afterwards, the Federal Supreme Court. We had 10 justices discussing the general concept of the possibility of arresting someone after the second appeal but nobody was talking about the actual habeas corpus. [Supreme Court Minister] Rosa Weber was the only justice who addressed the actual habeas corpus. So there was a distortion in the judgment and we have appealed to have it reanalyzed. Regardless, the arrest warrant was issued before we had exhausted all legal remedies before the Appellate Court (TRF4). We understand that Lula’s imprisonment was absolutely arbitrary. Furthermore, his arrest is having nefarious consequences for the Nation. A report came out in the press the other day stating that, in São Paulo alone, 14,000 people have now been arrested because of the ruling on ex-President Lula which enabled imprisonment after the second appeal is denied. Last week we filed two precautionary measures so that a stay motion could be imposed on the special appeals that we filed with the Superior Justice Court and the Federal Supreme Court. The special appeals aim to reanalyze the constitutional violations that occurred during the prosecution. We are asking the Supreme Justice Court to consider the measure due to the clear violations of federal laws, and the Federal Supreme Court to consider the measure as result of the clear and gross violations of Lula´s constitutional guarantees. We are hopeful because this procedure was full of irregularities from start to finish and the proof of innocence is extremely blatant. All of the evidence points to ex-President Lula’s innocence. Regarding his right to run for office, our Constitution speaks of barring political rights only after all of the appeals processes have been denied and there is a final ruling. There is another law, called ficha limpa which could be used to justify denying his rights. I will not go into whether it is constitutional or not but in any event all international treaties which speak of barring people from running for office always speak of removal of political rights only if preceded by an fair, independent and impartial trial. It is clear that ex-President Lula did not have a fair, impartial and independent trial. This is why we filed a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee, which functions as a World Court for many nations [like Brazil, which signed the Optional Protocol] and this is why it has agreed to analyze the case and rule on whether Lula can run for office. So now we have a situation in Brazil in which if they deny Lula’s political rights through this unfair process and he is not allowed to participate in the elections, a World Court may rule that the electoral front-runner was illegally removed. It is a very worrying situation for the legitimacy of democracy in Brazil. His imprisonment is already violating his right to campaign. All of the other candidates are traveling around Brazil, doing interviews. Some of them are making false accusations against Lula and he is not being given the right to defend himself.
If he were guilty of anything, he would also deserve a fair trial, but President Lula is the victim of injustice because there is not one piece of material evidence against him. But when everyone says there is no proof its wrong. We on the defense don’t say that there is no proof because we proved that he is innocent. The existing material evidence proves his innocence. So we have a lot of hope and we will continue fighting until justice is made so that his freedom is decreed and so that he can run for office, which is his right.
http://www.brasilwire.com/lulas-kafkaes ... ns-speaks/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Brazil
Free Lula Festival Draws 80,000 in Rio de Janei
On Saturday night, in front of a crowd of 80,000 and to chants of “Free Lula”, Chico Buarque and Gilberto Gil sang the legendary protest song Cálice for the first time together since 1973, on a night when Military Dictatorship censors turned off Buarque’s microphone. It was a highlight of an evening with poetry and political speeches, a reading of a letter Lula wrote to the crowd, and appearances by over 40 of Brazil’s greatest musicians, ranging from funk musician MC Carol, 24, to 86-year-old Tropicália legend Sergio Ricardo.
Buarque and Gil’s performance of Cálice was a direct response to a recent article Lula wrote for Folha de São Paulo newspaper. From solitary confinement, banned from giving interviews, held on charges that he committed undetermined acts by a US-backed judge who was allowed to rule on his own prosecution, Lula named the article after a line in Chico Buarque and Gilberto Gil’s song. During the military dictatorship, Buarque and Gil tricked the censors with a play on words: Cálice means chalice, but “Cale-se” means “shut up”. In an ambiguous manner the song either begins meaning, “Father, pull this chalice of blood-red wine away from me”, or “Father, pull this bloody ‘shut up’ away from me”. In the article Lula says, “What are the people who don’t want me to speak afraid that I will say? It isn’t enough for them to arrest me, they want to silence me.” It was fitting that Brazil’s largest TV network, Globo, which was created in partnership between the Marinho family and the Military government, refused to give any coverage of the event.
Gil and Buarque, then and now
Earlier in the evening, in an emotional moment, Samba legend Beth Carvalho, who has had serious health problems recently, came out on stage in a motorized wheelchair. As the announcers said that she was one of the main people responsible for making the concert happen, she spoke of her friend Lionel Brizola, Jango Goulart’s brother in law and former Rio governor who was the CIA’s most wanted man in South American during the 1960s, according to Philip Agee. “Brizola would be happy to see you all here tonight, with the left united again, finally,” she said.
Many of the artists who performed changed the lyrics of their songs to fit the current political climate. Chico César inserted a verse of the anti-dictatorship protest song “Pra não dizer que não falei das flores” by Geraldo Vandre, into his song “Mama Africa”.
Rising funk star MC Carol inserted a verse about 14 year old Marcos Vinicius da Silva, who was recently killed during a bungled military operation while walking to school in his school uniform in the Maré favela, along with chants of “Free Lula”.
The night ended with Gil inviting everyone back on stage for a rousing version of the samba song “Deixa vida me levar”, as 80,000 people sang and cheered for freedom for the political prisoner, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
http://www.brasilwire.com/free-lula-fes ... e-janeiro/
On Saturday night, in front of a crowd of 80,000 and to chants of “Free Lula”, Chico Buarque and Gilberto Gil sang the legendary protest song Cálice for the first time together since 1973, on a night when Military Dictatorship censors turned off Buarque’s microphone. It was a highlight of an evening with poetry and political speeches, a reading of a letter Lula wrote to the crowd, and appearances by over 40 of Brazil’s greatest musicians, ranging from funk musician MC Carol, 24, to 86-year-old Tropicália legend Sergio Ricardo.
Buarque and Gil’s performance of Cálice was a direct response to a recent article Lula wrote for Folha de São Paulo newspaper. From solitary confinement, banned from giving interviews, held on charges that he committed undetermined acts by a US-backed judge who was allowed to rule on his own prosecution, Lula named the article after a line in Chico Buarque and Gilberto Gil’s song. During the military dictatorship, Buarque and Gil tricked the censors with a play on words: Cálice means chalice, but “Cale-se” means “shut up”. In an ambiguous manner the song either begins meaning, “Father, pull this chalice of blood-red wine away from me”, or “Father, pull this bloody ‘shut up’ away from me”. In the article Lula says, “What are the people who don’t want me to speak afraid that I will say? It isn’t enough for them to arrest me, they want to silence me.” It was fitting that Brazil’s largest TV network, Globo, which was created in partnership between the Marinho family and the Military government, refused to give any coverage of the event.
Gil and Buarque, then and now
Earlier in the evening, in an emotional moment, Samba legend Beth Carvalho, who has had serious health problems recently, came out on stage in a motorized wheelchair. As the announcers said that she was one of the main people responsible for making the concert happen, she spoke of her friend Lionel Brizola, Jango Goulart’s brother in law and former Rio governor who was the CIA’s most wanted man in South American during the 1960s, according to Philip Agee. “Brizola would be happy to see you all here tonight, with the left united again, finally,” she said.
Many of the artists who performed changed the lyrics of their songs to fit the current political climate. Chico César inserted a verse of the anti-dictatorship protest song “Pra não dizer que não falei das flores” by Geraldo Vandre, into his song “Mama Africa”.
Rising funk star MC Carol inserted a verse about 14 year old Marcos Vinicius da Silva, who was recently killed during a bungled military operation while walking to school in his school uniform in the Maré favela, along with chants of “Free Lula”.
The night ended with Gil inviting everyone back on stage for a rousing version of the samba song “Deixa vida me levar”, as 80,000 people sang and cheered for freedom for the political prisoner, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
http://www.brasilwire.com/free-lula-fes ... e-janeiro/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Brazil
PT launches Lula's candidacy for president this Saturday
The Supreme Court of Brazil will analyze the appeal for freedom by Lula next week. | Photo: PT
Published 3 August 2018 (1 hour 53 minutes ago)
The Workers Party (PT) will launch the candidacy of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to the Presidency this Saturday, August 4 at the Casa de Portugal, São Paulo.
The militancy of the party announced through its networks the call for the Brazilian people to come in support of the candidacy of Lula and transform Brazil into a better place to live.
The PT also called a large march in Brasilia on August 15 to register Lula for the candidacy as President of the Republic before the Superior Electoral Tribunal.
"Thousands of people from all over Brazil will participate in these events because Lula is innocent and will be our presidential candidate again, so that the economy will be strong again and Brazil will be respected in the world. Thousands of people will go to Brasilia for the worker to have a decent salary and assigned portfolio. Thousands of people will go to Brasilia to see Petrobras revalued, with economic fuel. Participate also because Brazil needs Lula to be happy again ", is the call made by PT militants to all the Brazilian people.
Lula is the victim of a judicial persecution with political overtones for what his lawyers say that they can suspend the "ineligibility" of Lula da Silva judicially and claim that there were irregularities in the appeal process.
O site "Lula can be a candidate" brings together a series of texts and information about the legal status of his candidacy based on his analysis of two respected and experienced jurists and lawyers of Brazil and the world. Saiba mais: https://t.co/qA3Tfxdwlw
- PT Brasil (@ptbrasil) August 2, 2018
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who was imprisoned on April 7 for alleged acts of corruption, is the big favorite in the polls, ranging from 30 to 40 percent of the intention to vote.
The Supreme Court of Brazil will analyze next week the resource of freedom presented by the lawyers of the exmandatario.
The presidential elections will be held on October 7 of this year.
https://www.telesurtv.net/news/partido- ... -0005.html
Google Translator
The Supreme Court of Brazil will analyze the appeal for freedom by Lula next week. | Photo: PT
Published 3 August 2018 (1 hour 53 minutes ago)
The Workers Party (PT) will launch the candidacy of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to the Presidency this Saturday, August 4 at the Casa de Portugal, São Paulo.
The militancy of the party announced through its networks the call for the Brazilian people to come in support of the candidacy of Lula and transform Brazil into a better place to live.
The PT also called a large march in Brasilia on August 15 to register Lula for the candidacy as President of the Republic before the Superior Electoral Tribunal.
"Thousands of people from all over Brazil will participate in these events because Lula is innocent and will be our presidential candidate again, so that the economy will be strong again and Brazil will be respected in the world. Thousands of people will go to Brasilia for the worker to have a decent salary and assigned portfolio. Thousands of people will go to Brasilia to see Petrobras revalued, with economic fuel. Participate also because Brazil needs Lula to be happy again ", is the call made by PT militants to all the Brazilian people.
Lula is the victim of a judicial persecution with political overtones for what his lawyers say that they can suspend the "ineligibility" of Lula da Silva judicially and claim that there were irregularities in the appeal process.
O site "Lula can be a candidate" brings together a series of texts and information about the legal status of his candidacy based on his analysis of two respected and experienced jurists and lawyers of Brazil and the world. Saiba mais: https://t.co/qA3Tfxdwlw
- PT Brasil (@ptbrasil) August 2, 2018
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who was imprisoned on April 7 for alleged acts of corruption, is the big favorite in the polls, ranging from 30 to 40 percent of the intention to vote.
The Supreme Court of Brazil will analyze next week the resource of freedom presented by the lawyers of the exmandatario.
The presidential elections will be held on October 7 of this year.
https://www.telesurtv.net/news/partido- ... -0005.html
Google Translator
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Brazil
Brazil: Workers Party and Communist Party Unite For Presidential Elections
Published 6 August 2018
"Even with all the persecution Lula only grows in the polls," said Fernando Haddad.
After a closed meeting, the presidents of the Workers Party (PT), Senator Gleisi Hoffman, and of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCdoB) lawmaker Luciana Santos announced in a press conference they were entering into a coalition for the upcoming October presidential elections.
Manuela d'Avila, member of the PCdoB and former federal senator, will be the vice-presidential candidate to share the ballot with former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Senator Hoffman highlighted the importance of d'Avila for the strength and unity of the left-wing and the progressive forces in Brazil.
"Manuela represents the strength of women, of the youth, represents strength and determination," stated Senator Gleisi Hoffman in the press conference Sunday. PCdoB has decided to withdraw their own bid for office, where Manuela d'Avila was going to run for the presidency, in order to run together with the PT.
"During this first moment, however, due to the legal situation of Lula's candidacy, the coordinator of the Lula government plan, Fernando Haddad, will be recorded as vice president," reported the official site of the PT's leadership "PT na camara."
"The important thing is that as of this Monday Haddad and Manuela will be together touring Brazil with a strong agenda," stated PT president Senator Gleisi Hoffman.
The ballot will also have the support of Social Order Republican Party (PROS) and the Workers Cause Party (PCO) as a coalition. This front has the endorsement and support of the governors of the Brazilian Northeast, of Minas Gerais and of the majority of the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB).
"I am very happy with the unity around this extraordinary figure, the greatest leader of the left-wing President Lula," said Fernando Haddad during the conference.
Former President Lula da Silva is leading in the presidential polls, in spite of being imprisoned for over a hundred days through a very questioned "lawfare" case. "Even with all the persecution Lula only grows in the polls and it will be a pleasure to cross the country next to Manuela. Now let's make our programs compatible," Haddad said.
The latest development makes it the fifth time the PT and PCdoB are running together. PT won Brazil's last four elections, two were won by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and then two by Dilma Rousseff, who was impeached through an illegal parliamentary coup in 2016.
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/ ... -0008.html
Published 6 August 2018
"Even with all the persecution Lula only grows in the polls," said Fernando Haddad.
After a closed meeting, the presidents of the Workers Party (PT), Senator Gleisi Hoffman, and of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCdoB) lawmaker Luciana Santos announced in a press conference they were entering into a coalition for the upcoming October presidential elections.
Manuela d'Avila, member of the PCdoB and former federal senator, will be the vice-presidential candidate to share the ballot with former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Senator Hoffman highlighted the importance of d'Avila for the strength and unity of the left-wing and the progressive forces in Brazil.
"Manuela represents the strength of women, of the youth, represents strength and determination," stated Senator Gleisi Hoffman in the press conference Sunday. PCdoB has decided to withdraw their own bid for office, where Manuela d'Avila was going to run for the presidency, in order to run together with the PT.
"During this first moment, however, due to the legal situation of Lula's candidacy, the coordinator of the Lula government plan, Fernando Haddad, will be recorded as vice president," reported the official site of the PT's leadership "PT na camara."
"The important thing is that as of this Monday Haddad and Manuela will be together touring Brazil with a strong agenda," stated PT president Senator Gleisi Hoffman.
The ballot will also have the support of Social Order Republican Party (PROS) and the Workers Cause Party (PCO) as a coalition. This front has the endorsement and support of the governors of the Brazilian Northeast, of Minas Gerais and of the majority of the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB).
"I am very happy with the unity around this extraordinary figure, the greatest leader of the left-wing President Lula," said Fernando Haddad during the conference.
Former President Lula da Silva is leading in the presidential polls, in spite of being imprisoned for over a hundred days through a very questioned "lawfare" case. "Even with all the persecution Lula only grows in the polls and it will be a pleasure to cross the country next to Manuela. Now let's make our programs compatible," Haddad said.
The latest development makes it the fifth time the PT and PCdoB are running together. PT won Brazil's last four elections, two were won by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and then two by Dilma Rousseff, who was impeached through an illegal parliamentary coup in 2016.
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/ ... -0008.html
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Brazil
Protest against reforms in Brazil and ask for freedom for Lula
The protesters also called for the release of former President Lula da Silva, who was nominated as a presidential candidate by the PT, despite being in prison. | Photo: Xinhua
Published 11 August 2018 (7 hours 37 minutes ago)
Eight of the main unions in Brazil protested against several measures that the de facto president Michel Temer intends to adopt, as well as the freedom of former president Lula da Silva.
On Friday, eight of the main trade union centers of Brazil protested in at least 14 cities in the country against unemployment, labor reform and social security reform that seeks to approve the government of the unconstitutional president Michel Temer .
In addition, they requested the release of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2010), who is currently in prison.
The mobilizations, convened under the name of "The day of the Basta", were organized by the Single Central Workers (CUT), Força Sindical, the General Union of Workers (UGT), the Central Workers of Brazil, the Central Union of Trade Unions of Brazil, the Central General of the Workers of Brazil and the Central Union and Popular-National Coordination of Struggles.
The president of the UGT, Ricardo Patah, assured that "the reform left us a job precariousness never before seen". Meanwhile, his counterpart from the CUT, Vagner Freitas, called for the labor reform to be revoked and for the pensions of public servants to be protected, in addition to criticizing the prices of gasoline, gas and electricity.
About five thousand demonstrators in the city of Sao Paulo traveled to the Petrobras headquarters, on Avenida Paulista itself, to protest against the privatization of public companies.
Several leaders of the most powerful unions in the US They will travel next Monday to San Pablo to offer support to Lula.
Last week, Lula was elected by the Workers' Party (PT) as his candidate for the nation's presidency in next October's elections.
https://www.telesurtv.net/news/brasil-s ... -0001.html
Google Translator
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Brazil in the streets: Massive march "Lula Libre" crosses the country
It is expected that on August 15, when marches are joined in the capital, there will be more than 50 thousand who will accompany the inscription of the worker leader. | Photo: CubaTV
Published 10 August 2018
From three different cities, five thousand people began to walk towards Brasilia to support the registration of the candidacy of Lula da Silva.
Around 5 thousand peasants from all regions of Brazil are participating, since this Friday, in the National Free Lula March , which heads the Movement of Rural Landless Workers ( MST ) in favor of the release of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
In the mobilization, which will last until Wednesday, August 15, peasant movements demonstrate to demand the participation of Lula in the presidential elections of October 7 next.
On August 15 they will arrive in the capital, Brasilia , where there will be a large mobilization to accompany the registration of the former head of state as a candidate.
In addition, the MST wants to translate into the streets the rejection of the citizenship to the economic reforms led by the unelected president Michel Temer , as well as to call the attention of the population towards the economic crisis that the country suffers.
"His imprisonment is nothing more than an impediment to his candidacy and election as president, his candidacy picks up the historical banners of the working class in a project of a country with social rights," said one of the MST's directors , Marina dos Santos.
For his part, the deputy of the Workers Party ( PT ), Nilto Tatto, stressed that "It is the first time in the history of the country that we see a process of social mobilization in which the people, social movements, society organized civil society and several political parties, including those that have their own candidacy, are organized and in solidarity to demand the freedom of President Lula and ensure that he participates in the electoral process. "
The March
There are three columns that began to walk from the cities of Formosa and Luziania, in the State of Goiás, and Engenho das Lages, in the Federal District. The three, heading to Brasilia , capital that will arrive between August 14 and 15.
Until now, the exmandatario does have the right to register his candidacy on August 15, but the social movements foresee that justice will act against these popular intentions.
Although there are 5 thousand adherents who are walking, it is estimated that more than 50 thousand people will gather in the capital , among the dealers and among those who will be waiting for the arrival of the different columns. All of them will accompany Lula in his first step on the way to the presidential elections.
The government of the de facto president, Michel Temer , is based on privatization. Its policy has represented the loss of social protection programs applied since 2003, denounce its detractors.
Likewise, social organizations accuse the increase in inequality in the country and the increase in poverty figures, which today reaches 11 percent.
For their part, the unions reported the loss of conquests in the area of social security.
The minimum retirement age was raised: 65 for men and 60 for women.
The benefits for the working class diminished, even in times of emergency and economic difficulty.
https://www.telesurtv.net/news/marcha-n ... -0043.html
Google Translator
The protesters also called for the release of former President Lula da Silva, who was nominated as a presidential candidate by the PT, despite being in prison. | Photo: Xinhua
Published 11 August 2018 (7 hours 37 minutes ago)
Eight of the main unions in Brazil protested against several measures that the de facto president Michel Temer intends to adopt, as well as the freedom of former president Lula da Silva.
On Friday, eight of the main trade union centers of Brazil protested in at least 14 cities in the country against unemployment, labor reform and social security reform that seeks to approve the government of the unconstitutional president Michel Temer .
In addition, they requested the release of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2010), who is currently in prison.
The mobilizations, convened under the name of "The day of the Basta", were organized by the Single Central Workers (CUT), Força Sindical, the General Union of Workers (UGT), the Central Workers of Brazil, the Central Union of Trade Unions of Brazil, the Central General of the Workers of Brazil and the Central Union and Popular-National Coordination of Struggles.
The president of the UGT, Ricardo Patah, assured that "the reform left us a job precariousness never before seen". Meanwhile, his counterpart from the CUT, Vagner Freitas, called for the labor reform to be revoked and for the pensions of public servants to be protected, in addition to criticizing the prices of gasoline, gas and electricity.
About five thousand demonstrators in the city of Sao Paulo traveled to the Petrobras headquarters, on Avenida Paulista itself, to protest against the privatization of public companies.
Several leaders of the most powerful unions in the US They will travel next Monday to San Pablo to offer support to Lula.
Last week, Lula was elected by the Workers' Party (PT) as his candidate for the nation's presidency in next October's elections.
https://www.telesurtv.net/news/brasil-s ... -0001.html
Google Translator
****************************
Brazil in the streets: Massive march "Lula Libre" crosses the country
It is expected that on August 15, when marches are joined in the capital, there will be more than 50 thousand who will accompany the inscription of the worker leader. | Photo: CubaTV
Published 10 August 2018
From three different cities, five thousand people began to walk towards Brasilia to support the registration of the candidacy of Lula da Silva.
Around 5 thousand peasants from all regions of Brazil are participating, since this Friday, in the National Free Lula March , which heads the Movement of Rural Landless Workers ( MST ) in favor of the release of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
In the mobilization, which will last until Wednesday, August 15, peasant movements demonstrate to demand the participation of Lula in the presidential elections of October 7 next.
On August 15 they will arrive in the capital, Brasilia , where there will be a large mobilization to accompany the registration of the former head of state as a candidate.
In addition, the MST wants to translate into the streets the rejection of the citizenship to the economic reforms led by the unelected president Michel Temer , as well as to call the attention of the population towards the economic crisis that the country suffers.
"His imprisonment is nothing more than an impediment to his candidacy and election as president, his candidacy picks up the historical banners of the working class in a project of a country with social rights," said one of the MST's directors , Marina dos Santos.
For his part, the deputy of the Workers Party ( PT ), Nilto Tatto, stressed that "It is the first time in the history of the country that we see a process of social mobilization in which the people, social movements, society organized civil society and several political parties, including those that have their own candidacy, are organized and in solidarity to demand the freedom of President Lula and ensure that he participates in the electoral process. "
The March
There are three columns that began to walk from the cities of Formosa and Luziania, in the State of Goiás, and Engenho das Lages, in the Federal District. The three, heading to Brasilia , capital that will arrive between August 14 and 15.
Until now, the exmandatario does have the right to register his candidacy on August 15, but the social movements foresee that justice will act against these popular intentions.
Although there are 5 thousand adherents who are walking, it is estimated that more than 50 thousand people will gather in the capital , among the dealers and among those who will be waiting for the arrival of the different columns. All of them will accompany Lula in his first step on the way to the presidential elections.
The government of the de facto president, Michel Temer , is based on privatization. Its policy has represented the loss of social protection programs applied since 2003, denounce its detractors.
Likewise, social organizations accuse the increase in inequality in the country and the increase in poverty figures, which today reaches 11 percent.
For their part, the unions reported the loss of conquests in the area of social security.
The minimum retirement age was raised: 65 for men and 60 for women.
The benefits for the working class diminished, even in times of emergency and economic difficulty.
https://www.telesurtv.net/news/marcha-n ... -0043.html
Google Translator
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Brazil
Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced in a letter written from prison that he will formally register as a presidential candidate on Tuesday.
Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced that he will formally register as the Workers Party (PT) presidential candidate on Tuesday, one day before the August 15 deadline.
"They will not shut me up," began a letter written by the political leader held in a Curitiba prison since early April.
"I want to send you a message: yes, I am a candidate for president of the republic," Lula pronounced in his communique read from a Fortaleza radio program on Monday prior to an interview with his running mate, Fernando Haddad. Workers Party representatives will present Lula and Haddad as their presidential team to the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) in Brasilia on Tuesday.
Lula has been carrying out a 12-year sentence since April for supposedly laundering money and receiving kickbacks in the Brazilian Car Wash scandal. He was imprisoned before being allowed to appeal his case. Over the past four months, the PT candidate has been denied bail and the constitutional right to a hearing to overturn his corruption verdict handed down to him by Brazil's Fourth Regional Federal Court (TRF-4) last March.
"Lula is illegally imprisoned ... Our fight only ends when he (is released)," Haddad said in the interview. The vice presidential candidate denounced the Michel Temer "coup" who says Hassad, "can’t imprison Lula’s ideas that will continue to travel through Brazil."
On Sunday members of the MST (Landless Workers' Movement) and religious groups showed up in front of the Federal Supreme Court in Brasilia demanding that the former president is freed.
MST leader Joao Pedro Stedile told TeleSUR that their strike is to draw attention to the injustice that is being committed to Lula.
The social movements gathered in in front of the court denounced authorities for using Lula as a political prisoner. They argue that his corruption conviction is a ploy to keep the PT candidate from running for the presidency, which polls indicate he will win. They had been marching toward Brasilia since Friday to draw attention to Lula's case.
At least six MST members have been on a hunger strike for the past 13 days to demand the candidate's freedom.
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/ ... -0012.html
Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced that he will formally register as the Workers Party (PT) presidential candidate on Tuesday, one day before the August 15 deadline.
"They will not shut me up," began a letter written by the political leader held in a Curitiba prison since early April.
"I want to send you a message: yes, I am a candidate for president of the republic," Lula pronounced in his communique read from a Fortaleza radio program on Monday prior to an interview with his running mate, Fernando Haddad. Workers Party representatives will present Lula and Haddad as their presidential team to the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) in Brasilia on Tuesday.
Lula has been carrying out a 12-year sentence since April for supposedly laundering money and receiving kickbacks in the Brazilian Car Wash scandal. He was imprisoned before being allowed to appeal his case. Over the past four months, the PT candidate has been denied bail and the constitutional right to a hearing to overturn his corruption verdict handed down to him by Brazil's Fourth Regional Federal Court (TRF-4) last March.
"Lula is illegally imprisoned ... Our fight only ends when he (is released)," Haddad said in the interview. The vice presidential candidate denounced the Michel Temer "coup" who says Hassad, "can’t imprison Lula’s ideas that will continue to travel through Brazil."
On Sunday members of the MST (Landless Workers' Movement) and religious groups showed up in front of the Federal Supreme Court in Brasilia demanding that the former president is freed.
MST leader Joao Pedro Stedile told TeleSUR that their strike is to draw attention to the injustice that is being committed to Lula.
The social movements gathered in in front of the court denounced authorities for using Lula as a political prisoner. They argue that his corruption conviction is a ploy to keep the PT candidate from running for the presidency, which polls indicate he will win. They had been marching toward Brasilia since Friday to draw attention to Lula's case.
At least six MST members have been on a hunger strike for the past 13 days to demand the candidate's freedom.
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/ ... -0012.html
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Brazil
Indigenous leader murdered by logging mafia in Brazil
Jorginho Guajajara was a member of the "Guardianes del Amazonas" group. | Photo: Cimi
Published 17 August 2018
The threat of tribes that fight against illegal logging in the Amazon is growing.
Local authorities confirmed on Thursday that they are investigating the case of the murder of an indigenous leader in Maranhao in northern Brazil allegedly in the hands of the mafia responsible for illegal logging in the Amazon .
The body of Jorginho Guajajara was found with a broken neck, according to the human rights group Survival International.
Jorginho was leader of the Guajajara people , that town has faced several threats from a powerful mafia working in the area.
Jorginho Guajajara was a member of the "Guardianes del Amazonas" group.
"This is just one of the many murders in Maranhao (...) due to the work of the indigenous people to protect their lands from the loggers," said Sonia Guajajara, indigenous leader who is running to be the next vice president of the country.
Murdered in the Brazilian state of Maranhao Jorginho Guajajara, indigenous leader and member of the group "Guardianes del Amazonas". The logging mafias had threatened him for some time pic.twitter.com/oJGL5hDGd5
- Helios_EM (@Helios_EM) August 17, 2018
"Our people can no longer afford to wait while the government does nothing, and they are paying for it with their lives," he told the Reuters news agency.
According to estimates of rights groups since the year 2000, at least 80 members of the Guajajara tribe have been killed, which shows the growing threat of tribes that fight against illegal logging and the growing conflict over land.
This shows once again that the capitalist economic development seeks to impose itself regardless of what comes their way, in this case the preservation of indigenous culture and the environment.
Survival International indicated that the tribes (Guajajara and Awa) that live in the territory of Arariboia, are the most threatened in the world, because they have nowhere to go if their forest is cut down.
https://www.telesurtv.net/news/asesinad ... -0010.html
Google Translator
Jorginho Guajajara was a member of the "Guardianes del Amazonas" group. | Photo: Cimi
Published 17 August 2018
The threat of tribes that fight against illegal logging in the Amazon is growing.
Local authorities confirmed on Thursday that they are investigating the case of the murder of an indigenous leader in Maranhao in northern Brazil allegedly in the hands of the mafia responsible for illegal logging in the Amazon .
The body of Jorginho Guajajara was found with a broken neck, according to the human rights group Survival International.
Jorginho was leader of the Guajajara people , that town has faced several threats from a powerful mafia working in the area.
Jorginho Guajajara was a member of the "Guardianes del Amazonas" group.
"This is just one of the many murders in Maranhao (...) due to the work of the indigenous people to protect their lands from the loggers," said Sonia Guajajara, indigenous leader who is running to be the next vice president of the country.
Murdered in the Brazilian state of Maranhao Jorginho Guajajara, indigenous leader and member of the group "Guardianes del Amazonas". The logging mafias had threatened him for some time pic.twitter.com/oJGL5hDGd5
- Helios_EM (@Helios_EM) August 17, 2018
"Our people can no longer afford to wait while the government does nothing, and they are paying for it with their lives," he told the Reuters news agency.
According to estimates of rights groups since the year 2000, at least 80 members of the Guajajara tribe have been killed, which shows the growing threat of tribes that fight against illegal logging and the growing conflict over land.
This shows once again that the capitalist economic development seeks to impose itself regardless of what comes their way, in this case the preservation of indigenous culture and the environment.
Survival International indicated that the tribes (Guajajara and Awa) that live in the territory of Arariboia, are the most threatened in the world, because they have nowhere to go if their forest is cut down.
https://www.telesurtv.net/news/asesinad ... -0010.html
Google Translator
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Brazil
Former President Lula now leads polling in all regions of Brazil except the 3 southernmost states, where he trails Extreme-Right Jair Bolsonaro by 3 points. (DataFolha).
Courtesy Brasil Wire @BrasilWire
Courtesy Brasil Wire @BrasilWire
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."