Lula Denounces He's Incarcerated for a Crime that Never Was

Brazil's former president Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva has denounced on Sunday, a year after he was arbitrarily jailed, that he was charged and sentenced for a crime that never was.

'Every day that I spend here (in jail) heightens my outrage, but I have faith on a just trial and that truth prevails', the former president underlines in the article 'Why they fear a free Lula so much?' he wrote for Folha de Sao Paulo daily.

He asserts he can sleep peacefully with his conscience in peace knowing he's innocent, but he doubts those who sentenced him over a judicial farce can sleep as peacefully.

From April 7, 2018, the former union leader has been incarcerated at a federal police jail in Curitiba, capital of the southern state of Parana, after been sentenced to 12 years by a Regional Federal Court over alleged corruption charges.

The former president was sentenced a second time over the same charges last February, this time to serve 12 years and eleven months, by Judge Gabriela Hardt, who replaced former magistrate Moro, who is now serving a Justice and Public Security Minister.

Lula stresses that it is clear his incarceration 'is part of political maneuvering that began with the reelection of President Dilma Rousseff in 2014'.

Defeated in the polls for the fourth consecutive time, the opposition resorted to a coup d'état to return to power, reassuming the 'authoritarian vice of the Brazilian ruling classes', he adds.

Despite his imprisonment, Lula comments that what anguishes most is 'what Brazil is going through and the suffering of the people,' adding by arbitrarily trying him 'they broke limits of the Law and the Constitution, weakening democracy'.

He further writes that the rights of the people have been revoked, while a readjustment of salaries leading to impoverished jobs, heightened cost of living are imposed.