On February 6, the former president was condemned by federal judge Gabriela Hardt to 12 years and 11 months in prison, although she admitted not having evidence that connects Lula with the house involved in the Lava Jato case.
This new conviction is part of the persecution that the leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) has been facing since the first trial, where none of the accusations could be proven either. His imprisonment in 2018 a month after the presidential elections in Brazil was not accidental, as he was the most popular candidate in the elections; neither was Bolsonaro’s statement during his campaign last October saying that if he became president Lula would “rot” in prison.
Marcio Monzane, Regional Secretary of UNI Americas said: “Today, with this new sentence, we reaffirm that Lula is a political prisoner and that he and his party are being politically persecuted; but they will not succeed in silencing the most popular president of Brazil, nor the social and union movements”.
“We will continue marching in the streets and fighting from all fronts for the release of Lula, and against the government’s policies which are a regression” he concluded.
