BRASILIA, Oct 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazil’s former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva rejected to move to a semi-open prison after spending a year and a half in a cell.
Brazilian prosecutors who put Lula da Silva behind bars requested last week that Lula be moved from a regular closed prison to a semi-open one.
However, Lula considered the request a sort of bargain and refused to be moved if his innocence is not declared. In a letter released to the public earlier on Monday, Lula said he will not accept bargaining with his rights and freedom.
He reaffirmed his hope that the Supreme Court will overturn what he said was “arbitrary” sentence.
Lula has been serving an eight-year-and-ten-month sentence for corruption and money laundering since April 2018.
According to Lula’s lawyer Cristiano Zanin, though Lula has the right to be moved to a semi-open prison, Brazilian courts cannot force him to do so.
In this case, Lula would have to stay in prison only during the night. He still would have to wear electronic ankle monitors while outside during the day, though.
Only prisoners that are first-time convicts, have spent at least a sixth of their sentence in jail, and have displayed good behavior could move into the semi-open regime.
Lula was arrested in April 2018 and sentenced to 12 years and one month in jail. Some months after the arrest, and several legal battles, a court reduced the sentence to eight years and 10 months.
The former president was first sentenced last year by then lower court judge (and now justice minister) Sergio Moro, who convicted Lula for having taken a 3.7mn-real (US$891,566) bribe from engineering company OAS. The firm reportedly spent that sum refurbishing a beachfront apartment for Lula in return for contracts with state-run oil firm Petrobras.
The last sentence ended Lula’s presidential campaign. Until then, he was the undisputed frontrunner. His replacement, Workers’ Party candidate Fernando Haddad, was defeated by Jair Bolsonaro. — NNN-AGENCIES
