Brazil’s supreme court chief urges calm ahead of Lula ruling
Brasília, Brazil - The Chief Justice of Brazil’s Supreme Court urged calm and warned against violence on Monday ahead of a ruling that could send former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to prison - or give him a get-out-of-jail card.
“This is a time when we have to ask for calm,” said Carmen Lucia, president of the court. “Calm so that ideological differences don’t become the source of social disorder, calm to break with the picture of violence.”
Lula (72) easily leads in the polls ahead of October 7 presidential elections.
But the leftist former twoterm president is fighting to avoid having to start serving a 12 year sentence for accepting a luxury apartment as a kickback from a big construction company - and his fate is now in the Supreme Court’s hands.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will rule on his petition that he be allowed to remain free while he exhausts all available appeals.
That would likely keep him out of jail for the near future and maybe even let him get on the presidential ballot.
But it is hugely controversial as a significant number of Brazilians see Lula as the embodiment of a wave of corruption sweeping over Latin America’s biggest country.
Under current law, Brazilians must start serving their sentence as soon as a first appeal has failed, which is Lula’s case. However, the Supreme Court is almost evenly split on the issue, meaning there is still a chance of the rule being changed for Lula.
Pressure on the Supreme Court was intense in the run-up to Wednesday’s session, with more than 5,000 judges and prosecutors handing in a petition demanding that Lula not be allowed to walk.
In her rare public statement, Lucia warned that in a democracy ‘different opinions have to be respected’.
“Violence is not justice,” she said. “Violence is vengeance and incivility.”
Lula is not the only one causing waves this week. Current centre-right President Michel Temer, who already faces two corruption charges, is embroiled in new controversy following the arrests of several close associates on graft charges.
They were charged last Thursday in connection with a probe into whether port logistics company Rodrimar was given contracts at Sao Paulo’s huge Santos port after bribing Temer.
For now, Temer is at little risk of facing prosecution.