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AUTHORITARIANISM DEMOCRACY ELECTION 2018 LAVA JATO LAWFARE

Brasil’s Big 4 Leftist Parties Denounce Lula imprisonment

As protests grow in solidarity with Lula, Brasil’s biggest Left parties – PT, along with PDT, PSoL and PCdoB have launched a joint statement, denouncing what they say and many others insist is the political persecution of the former President and leading 2018 candidate.


Note of Repudiation on the Imprisonment of ex-President Lula

The imprisonment of ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, done by standing the Federal Constitution on its end, represents an aggression against Brazilian Democracy and international human rights treaties which consecrate the basis of democratic regimes, the principals of people’s sovereignty, the presumption of innocent before proven guilty and the right to due process of law.

The origin of modern democracies is built on these very values, which have, in habeas corpus their most significant manifestation. Therefore, the imprisonment of the ex-President should be interpreted as a politically motivated, casuistic decision that has caused an intolerable level of legal insecurity in Brazil.

The hurried and unjustified imprisonment of ex-President Lula, against which there was not one piece of minimally solid evidence presented, aggravates the dangerous and growing climate of hatred and political instability that has taken hold in the nation. The decision, destitute of a solid legal base, was an act of political persecution which will deepen the grave economic, social and political crisis in Brazil.

The unjust political-judicial hunt against the leader in the election polls signifies an irresponsible bet on a climate of chaos and uncertainty which damages the entire Brazilian population. We still trust that democratic forces within and without the institutions, will know how to revert this grotesque decision and free Lula.

What they are doing to Lula today could happen to anybody tomorrow. To respect the Constitution is to respect democracy.

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Carlos Lupi – National President of the Partido Democrático Trabalhista (Democratic Workers Party/PDT)

Gleisi Hoffmann – National President of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers Party/PT)

Juliano Medeiros – National President of the Partido Socialismo e Liberdade (Socialism and Freedom Party/PSOL)

Luciana Santos – National President of the Partido Comunista do Brasil (Brazilian Communist Party/PCdoB)


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