The telenovela Lula is not over yet. The former president of Brazil, sentenced to 12 years for corruption and money laundering but has always claimed to be innocent, to the point of standing again in the elections next October (with the polls still favoring him, despite being in prison), he will soon be released from the prison of the Superintendence of the Federal Police of Curitiba, in the south of the country, where he has been detained for exactly three months, since last April 8.
To decide for the release of Lula, leader of the workers' party, is Judge Rogério Favreto, who has considered accepting an application for Habeas corpus presented on Friday by various deputies of the PT and by the team of lawyers of the former Brazilian president, who had asked for their client to be released pending the appeal being examined. According to the judge, who therefore granted him habeas corpus, there's no reason why former President Lula can't wait outside prison for his appeal to be resolved.
Favreto is one of the judges on duty today at the Federal Regional Court of the 4th region, that of Porto Alegre, the court of appeal which had increased the prison sentence against the former from 9 years and 6 months to 12 years and one month president, on charges of corruption. But there are already those who don't agree: among them my colleague Sergio Moro, who condemned Lula for corruption in the first instance and who opposes the release of the founder of the Workers' Party (PT), stating that the magistrate who decided it does not have the competence.
Lula, as mentioned, remains strong despite the arrest in the polls for the Brazilian presidential elections on October 7 with 30% of the votes, and has always reaffirmed his willingness to participate in the electoral competition.
