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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
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href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Lula-is-Free-20191108-0009.html">https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Lula-is-Free-20191108-0009.html</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Lula is Free</h1>
November 8, 2019</div>
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<p>Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was
released on Friday, one day after Brazil's Supreme Court
<a
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Brazil-Court-Ends-Early-Prison-Rule-Decision-Could-Free-Lula-20191107-0019.html"
target="_blank">decided</a> to end the mandatory
imprisonment of convicted criminals after they lose
their first appeal. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>He also thanked his mother, recalling that she was
"illiterate" when he grew up.</p>
<p>"My heart does not have any hatred inside, I am living
the prison filled with love," he concluded.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
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<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://freedomarchives.org/">https://freedomarchives.org/</a>
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