03/09/2021 15:00
Clarín.com
World
Updated 03/09/2021 15:00
This Monday
all the corruption convictions against the former president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva,
were
annulled
.
The decision was made by a magistrate of the Supreme Court of Brazil, Luiz Edson Fachin, as an individual measure, after responding to a habeas corpus presented by Lula's lawyers, alleging that the 13th court of Curitiba, headed by former minister Sergio Moro ,
had no jurisdiction
to judge the former president.
A new process
The annulment of the corruption charges in the Lava Jato case and the Petrobras oil company in the first instance of the Curitiba court, opens the possibility for Lula that the processes will
be restarted
by a federal court in Brasilia.
But the start date of this new court
is still undetermined
.
The Brasilia court will have to decide initially whether it considers the prosecution's accusations to be admissible and enables Lula's trial.
The former president of Brazil, Lula da Silva.
Photo: dpa
The alleged reasons for the annulment of the charges are that the then judge Sergio Moro did not have at the time the "legal competence" necessary to analyze these cases, as explained by the Supreme Court.
The Attorney General's Office has already announced that it intends to
appeal the ruling
to annul the charges to Lula by Fachin, taking this individual decision of the magistrate to the Supreme Court, or but also to the Second Chamber of the highest court, which must
ratify or annul
the decision made by the magistrate.
Why was Sergio Moro "incompetent"?
According to Judge Fachin, the Curitiba justice did not have legal jurisdiction over the corruption scandals at Petrobras and determined that they should be tried in other instances, such as
the Federal justice.
In turn, the former president's lawyers had been trying to annul the charges for several months, arguing that Sergio Moro was partial in his decisions and benefited from them, by being appointed Minister of Justice when the current president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, took office. his position in January 2019.
What is Lula being accused of?
Lula Da Silva is accused of having benefited financially through corruption cases within the Lava Jato case that involves the Petrobras company and the Odebrecht construction company.
Lula is related to the acquisition of a triplex apartment in the Guarujá spa on the coast of the State of San Pablo, a country house in the town of Atibaia and in turn an investigation into the Lula Institute, founded by him, and suspicions about alleged illegal donations made by Odebrecht.
A protester from Lula shows a sign that reads "Justice for Lula", and wears a headband that says "Bolsonaro Out."
Photo: AP
He was occasionally accused of appointing and keeping in their positions agents who tolerated and enabled the illicit purposes of a criminal group that, by having these strategic positions, facilitated the diversion of money from these companies.
Lula favored
With the ruling of Judge Luiz Fachin and the appeals of his group of lawyers, Lula recovered his
political rights
for the annulment of the cases against him.
The same would enable Lula to be able to stand as a presidential candidate for the next elections in 2022, in what is supposed to face Jair Bolsonaro politically for the position of president.
Although the ruling
does not exonerate Lula
, it allows him to return to the "political arena" and is that Lula, 75, participated in all elections since the re-democratization in 1985, except in 2018, when he was disqualified due to the first of his two convictions for passive corruption and money laundering.
Even in that election he surpassed Bolsonaro in vote intentionality.
Uncertain future
Although Luiz Fachin's decision was very well received by Lula and his lawyers, the case
is not defined or closed
and the legal and political future of the former president remains very uncertain.
Lula
can still be
politically
disqualified
and even jailed.
It should be remembered that for this reason he spent 580 days in jail and was released in November 2018. In addition, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the alleged illegal donations made by the construction company Odebrecht and was also sentenced to 17 years in prison in the cottage process.
There is
still no final ruling
on the Lula Institute
.
But what could happen is that the former president has the decision made by Judge Fachin annulled and the Supreme Court
decides to continue with the cases
.
In that case, he could be found guilty and confirm the sentence established by the court of second instance or by any of the judges of Brasilia and São Paulo who initiated these processes.
However, the trump card that Lula and his group of lawyers still have is that the current jurisprudence
prohibits his imprisonment
while he has the possibility of appeal, something that Lula clings to.
Alberto Fernández contacted Lula and told him that "he always knew he was innocent" and stressed that these sentences "show that lawfare exists."
Redacción Clarín, with information from O'Globo, Télam, BBC and Clarin archive
ap