By\u00a0Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter, Rio de Janeiro, January 25, 2018<\/p>\n
According to the Ficha Limpa bill persons convicted of crimes are not eligible to run for public office which may keep Lula from this year’s Presidential elections.<\/p>\n
S\u00c3O PAULO, BRAZIL \u2013 Three Brazilian judges from a regional court in Porto Alegre maintained on Wednesday the conviction of former president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, raising his sentence from the original nine and a half years in prison to twelve years and one month.<\/p>\n
After the hearing supporters and opposition spoke about sentence and the former leader\u2019s chances of being allowed to run in this year\u2019s Presidential race.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe result of the trial of Lula\u2019s defense in court, with clearly arranged votes of the three judges, constitutes a judicial farce,\u201d said PT (Workers Party) president, Senator Gleisi Hoffman. Hoffman criticized not only the maintenance of the conviction but also the decision to increase the sentence imposed by Judge Sergio Moro in July of 2017.<\/p>\n
Leaving the courthouse without commenting on decision, Lula\u2019s lawyer Cristiano Zanin, gave a press conference in the early evening. According to Zanin the defense will now use all legal means to challenge the sentence handed down, including more appeals both to higher courts and even to Brazil\u2019s Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
For Zanin, the appeal hearing did not reflect the truth of the facts. \u201cThe mark of this trial is that Lula has been convicted without having committed a crime,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n
While some scuffles broke out among the crowds watching the hearing in several cities across the country, no major incidents were reported. In S\u00e3o Paulo, the former leader spoke to a crowd of supporters who gathered for a rally in Pra\u00e7a da Republica, in the city center.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never had any illusions about the judges in the Lava Jato (CarWash) investigation. There was a pact between the Judiciary and the press that decided that it was time to end the PT and our governance of the country,\u201d said Lula to a cheering crowd.<\/p>\n
With the maintenance of the sentence Lula\u2019s chances of being eligible to run in October\u2019s Presidential elections has diminished significantly. According to the Ficha Limpa (Clean Slate) bill, persons convicted of major crimes are not eligible to run for public office.<\/p>\n
And although Lula has the option to appeal further his sentence, there is some question if the hearing would be over by August 31st, the deadline for political parties to register their candidates for the election.<\/p>\n
For many, the accusations and consequent conviction were a plan to keep the former leader, known to many as \u2018father of the poor\u2019 from running in this year\u2019s elections. All polls taken since the middle of 2017 show that Lula would win the race regardless of the second placed candidate. This belief holds not only true with a great many Brazilians, but foreign analysts as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe attempt to exclude Brazil\u2019s most popular political leader from the presidential race, following the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff on a very dubious pretext, represents a serious breakdown in the rule of law,\u201d says Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a think tank headquartered in Washington DC.<\/p>\n
In an op-ed article in the New York Times this week Weisbrot says if Lula is ineligible to run, this could be \u2018politically destabilizing\u2019 for the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Lula\u2019s Brazil will have reconstituted itself as a much more limited form of electoral democracy, in which a politicized judiciary can exclude a popular political leader from running for office. That would be a calamity for Brazilians, the region and the world,\u201d concludes Weisbrot.<\/p>\n
The former President, however, promises that no conviction will make him cease his party\u2019s goal of obtaining once again the most powerful public seat in the country. \u201cWait because we will be back,\u201d Lula told his supporters on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n