{"id":144614,"date":"2019-10-07T12:00:21","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T11:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=144614"},"modified":"2019-10-15T09:35:40","modified_gmt":"2019-10-15T08:35:40","slug":"fearful-of-lulas-exoneration-his-once-fanatical-prosecutors-request-his-release-from-prison-but-lula-refuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/10\/fearful-of-lulas-exoneration-his-once-fanatical-prosecutors-request-his-release-from-prison-but-lula-refuses\/","title":{"rendered":"Fearful of Lula\u2019s Exoneration, His Once-Fanatical Prosecutors Request His Release from Prison. But Lula Refuses."},"content":{"rendered":"

Lula\u2019s accusers are desperately trying to get him out of prison, while he insists on staying there until he\u2019s fully exonerated.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Former Brazilian President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva attends a Mass in honor of his wife, Marisa Let\u00edcia, on April 7, 2018. Photo: Marcos Bizzotto\/AGIF via AP<\/p><\/div>\n

4 Oct 2019 – <\/em>The same Brazilian prosecutors who for years exhibited a single-minded fixation on jailing former President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva are now seeking his release from prison, requesting that a court allow him to serve the remainder of his 11-year sentence\u00a0for corruption at home. But Lula \u2014 who believes the request is motivated by fear that\u00a0prosecutorial and judicial improprieties in his case, which were\u00a0revealed by<\/a> The Intercept<\/a>, will lead to the nullification of his conviction \u2014 is opposing these efforts,\u00a0insisting that he will not leave prison until he receives full exoneration.<\/p>\n

In seeking his release, Lula\u2019s prosecutors are almost certainly not motivated by humanitarian concerns. Quite the contrary: Those prosecutors have often displayed a near-pathological hatred for the two-term former president. Last month, The Intercept, jointly with its reporting partner UOL, published previously secret<\/a> Telegram messages in which the Operation Car Wash prosecutors responsible for prosecuting Lula cruelly mocked the tragic death of his 7-year-old grandson from meningitis<\/a>\u00a0earlier this year, as well as the 2017 death of his wife<\/a> of 43 years from a stroke at the age of 66. One of the prosecutors who participated publicly apologized<\/a>, but none of the others have.<\/p>\n

Far more likely is that the prosecutors are motivated by desperation to\u00a0salvage\u00a0their legacy after a series of defeats suffered by their once-untouchable, widely revered Car Wash investigation, ever since The Intercept, on June 9, began publishing reports<\/a> based on a massive archive of secret chats between the prosecutors and Sergio Moro, the judge who oversaw most of the convictions, including Lula\u2019s, and\u00a0who now serves as President Jair Bolsonaro\u2019s Minister of Justice and Public Security.<\/p>\n

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Read Our Complete Coverage: Secret Brazil Archive<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The\u00a0prosecutors\u2019 cynical gambit, it appears, is that the country\u2019s Supreme Court \u2014 which two weeks ago nullified one of Moro\u2019s anti-corruption convictions<\/a> for the first time on the ground\u00a0that he violated core rights of defendants \u2014 will\u00a0feel less pressure\u00a0to nullify Moro\u2019s guilty\u00a0verdict in Lula\u2019s case if the ex-president is comfortably at home in S\u00e3o Paulo (albeit under house arrest) rather than lingering in a Curitiba prison.<\/p>\n

But this strategy ran into a massive roadblock\u00a0when Lula\u00a0demanded<\/a> that he not be released from prison unless and until he is fully exonerated. He wants to ensure that nobody \u2014 least of all Supreme Court judges who will rule on his appeal \u2014 feel relieved of their obligation to decide correctly by telling themselves that there is no need to take such a drastic step as nullifying Lula\u2019s conviction given that he is no longer in jail but at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t trade my dignity for my freedom,\u201d the former president proclaimed in a hand-written letter<\/a> \u201cto the Brazilian People,\u201d explaining why he would resist efforts to swap his home for\u00a0his cage as his prison. \u201cI\u2019ve already proven that the accusations against me are false. It is [the Car Wash prosecutors and Sergio Moro], not me, who are now prisoners of the lies they told Brazil and the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, Deltan Dallagnol, the task force\u2019s nominal chief and a prime subject of The Intercept\u2019s reporting, insisted that Lula has no say in that matter: that if he is ordered to leave prison, he has no power to resist or reject the terms. So weakened is the Car Wash prosecution that, in\u00a0a surreal\u00a0spectacle, the prosecutors who worked for years and broke numerous rules to ensure Lula\u2019s imprisonment are now demanding that he leave prison (albeit on their terms), while Lula categorically refuses to do so absent full acquittal of the crimes of which they accused him.<\/p>\n

The Car Wash prosecutors<\/u> have good reason to worry that Moro\u2019s and their gross misconduct could lead to a nullification of Lula\u2019s conviction. Beyond the alarming-to-them Supreme Court ruling from two weeks ago, numerous developments reflect a newfound hostility to their work.<\/p>\n

On Friday morning, Brazil\u2019s largest newspaper, Folha of\u00a0S\u00e3o Paulo, reported that<\/a> the Supreme Court is moving to judicially authenticate The Intercept\u2019s archive so that its contents can be used in judicial proceedings to review the legitimacy of the anti-corruption probe\u2019s convictions.\u00a0Meanwhile, President of the Court Dias Toffoli announced this week that the court will shortly decide\u00a0several looming questions about Car Wash that could, by themselves, lead to an annulment of Lula\u2019s conviction.<\/p>\n

Beyond the Supreme Court, Moro\u2019s \u201canti-crime\u201d package \u2014 which is principally designed to fulfill Bolsonaro\u2019s dream of immunizing the police and military when they kill poor, innocent favela residents \u2014 has suffered multiple defeats in Congress.\u00a0Bolsonaro\u2019s choice for chief prosecutor, Augusto Aras, was confirmed by the Senate in September\u00a0only after he\u00a0publicly condemned the \u201cexcesses\u201d of the Car Wash prosecutors, claiming that the prosecutors\u2019 youth and lack of adult supervision made them believe they could cross all ethical lines.<\/p>\n

Longtime defenders of the Car Wash probe \u2014 including one of the center-right leaders in the Senate of the 2016 impeachment of former President Dilma\u00a0Rousseff, as well as the former chief prosecutor in\u00a0his new book\u00a0\u2014 have expressed remorse about the unethical components of the prosecutors\u2019 actions as revealed by The Intercept\u2019s last several months of reporting. One\u00a0Supreme Court minister, Gilmar Mendes, this week read from The Intercept\u2019s published Telegram chats to accuse Moro and the prosecutors of engaging in \u201corganized criminality\u201d and being \u201ctorturers\u201d (for using the tactic of \u201cpreventative imprisonment\u201d as a means of forcing\u00a0defendants to accuse others as a condition for being\u00a0released).<\/p>\n

A new bill to punish prosecutors and judges for abusing their power \u2014 aimed at least in part at the abuses of Moro and the prosecutors \u2014 easily passed both houses of Congress last month, and most of Bolsonaro\u2019s vetoes of parts of the bill were swiftly overridden. Numerous disciplinary proceedings are pending<\/a> against Dallagnol and at least several harsh punishments are expected. A clear anti-Car Wash momentum is now driving many of Brazil\u2019s key institutions.<\/p>\n

The erosion of Moro and Car Wash\u2019s credibility is now global: Last month, 17 leading anti-corruption scholars from around the world \u2014 including one, Yale Law School\u2019s Susan Rose-Ackerman, repeatedly heralded by Dallagnol as the \u201cworld leading anti-corruption expert\u201d \u2014\u00a0signed a letter<\/a> that, citing The Intercept\u2019s reporting, condemned Moro\u2019s\u00a0\u201cillegal and immoral practices\u201d\u00a0and demanded Lula\u2019s immediate release; on Thursday, the Paris City Council, citing The Intercept\u2019s reporting, voted to make<\/a> Lula an honorary citizen of Paris;\u00a0last month, members of the Democratic House of Representatives caucus wrote a letter<\/a> to the Justice Department which, referencing The Intercept\u2019s reporting, proclaimed that \u201cthese reports appear to confirm that the actions of both Judge Moro and the Lava Jato prosecutors have been motivated by a political agenda that seeks to undermine the electoral prospects of Brazil\u2019s Worker\u2019s Party.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be sure, there will be significant pressure applied<\/a> to, and even not-so-subtle threats against<\/a>, the Supreme Court to avoid anything that would exonerate Lula. Each time Lula\u2019s case has made its way to the highest court, members of the military, both active and retired, have warned the court<\/a> in quite explicit terms that they were being watched, and expected the court to keep Lula where he was. Shortly prior to his father\u2019s successful election victory, Bolsonaro\u2019s son Eduardo (who the president is currently attempting to nominate as his ambassador to the U.S.) warned that any adverse Supreme Court decisions could be addressed<\/a> by \u201csending a solider and\u00a0a corporal\u201d to the doors of the court.<\/p>\n

Notwithstanding those pressures and threats, Moro and the legitimacy of the Car Wash probe are far weaker and more vulnerable than they were four months ago. The prosecutors clearly fear that the crowning jewel of their work \u2014 Lula\u2019s head on a stake \u2014 is in jeopardy. Much of their legitimacy has already been eroded, but\u00a0any reversal of what they regard as their most cherished accomplishment would be a fatal blow.<\/p>\n

Trying to get Lula out of his jail cell and into a more palatable prison \u2014 his home \u2014 is a desperate attempt to avert that catastrophe. And Lula knows it, which is why \u2014 remarkably \u2014 he is so insistent on remaining in prison until he receives the full acquittal he believes he is due\u00a0and which, with the truth about Moro and the prosecutors\u2019 actions finally known, he believes is imminent.<\/p>\n

As more revelations continue to be published by The Intercept and its reporting partners about the misconduct of Moro and the prosecutors, the likelihood of a full reckoning for the once-revered prosecutors and the judge who led them increases. Lula\u2019s calculation that he should remain in prison until he is fully cleared may prove to be erroneous, but there is certainly a solid basis in fact for his conclusion.<\/p>\n

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