[News] Brazil - Lula is Free

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Lula-is-Free-20191108-0009.html


  Lula is Free

November 8, 2019
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Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was released on Friday, one 
day after Brazil's Supreme Court decided 
<https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Brazil-Court-Ends-Early-Prison-Rule-Decision-Could-Free-Lula-20191107-0019.html> to 
end the mandatory imprisonment of convicted criminals after they lose 
their first appeal.

Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva thanked on Friday all the 
people involved in his defense team in a speech he said in front of a 
crowd of supporters outside of Curitiba jail.

"I want the Public Ministry and Judge Sergio Moro to know that they did 
not imprison a man, they tried to kill an idea, but ideas don't die, 
they do not disappear," he said in his first speech to supporters 
waiting for him to walk free.

As he walked out of jail, Lula raised a defiant fist of victory in the 
air to the cheers of a crowd of supporters and members of his Workers 
Party who waved red flags and held "Free Lula" banners.

"They tried to create the image that I was a thief with Globo TV, but 
they don't represent 10 percent of the people I represent," he added.

Lula vowed to fight to establish his innocence and excoriated what he 
called the "rotten side of the judicial system" for "working to 
criminalize the left."

He announced that his next step will be going to Sao Paolo to the union 
for metal workers first, and then will start touring the country in 
order to renew the electoral campaign he was forced to interrupt.

After thanking many comrades from the Workers Party, which he leads, as 
well as the PSOL and PSDB, the opposition leader also introduced his 
daughter and his grandson, and his "future partner of life."

He also thanked his mother, recalling that she was "illiterate" when he 
grew up.

"My heart does not have any hatred inside, I am living the prison filled 
with love," he concluded.

Curitiba Judge Danilo Perreira Jr. ordered his release after Lula's 
defense lawyer Cristiano Zanin met with him this Friday afternoon and 
submitted a request for immediate release.

"Lula has not committed any crime and is a victim of the law, which, in 
the case of the former president, is the strategic use of the law for 
the purpose of political persecution," emphasized his lawyers.

-- 
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