Federal Appellate Court Once Again Upholds Lula’s Conviction of Corruption

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Federal Court of Appeals for the 4th Region (TRF-4), in an online hearing completed on Wednesday, May 6th, rejected the appeal and upheld the conviction of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in the case of the Atibaia farm. The decision was unanimous.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the court sessions have been held virtually. The trial of Lula’s appeal began on April 27th.

The Eighth Panel, in charge of the Lava Jato cases, also rejected the petition to defer the examination of the motions for clarification. The ex-president’s defense called for the trial session to be held in person.

Lula was sentenced in November of 2019 to a term of 17 years, one month and ten days, for the crimes of corruption and money laundering, on charges of receiving kickbacks from construction companies, which allegedly renovated and decorated a site, in Atibaia, São Paulo state, in exchange for benefits in contracts with Petrobras. According to the indictment, the farm was used by the ex-president’s family.

The appeal filed by Lula’s defense, called motions for clarification, asked for a review of questions, revisions, or contradictions supposedly contained in the judicial sentence. The ex-president maintains that he is innocent.

The trial session was virtual and could not be followed by the press. The outcome of the session was published at 2:46 PM on Thursday, May 6th.

According to attorney Cristiano Zanin, Lula’s defense counsel, the affirmation of the prison sentence is “unfair and arbitrary”. The defense awaits the release of the text of the ruling to determine potential appeals.

In the lower court decision, the ex-president had been sentenced to 12 years and 11 months, but this had been increased by the appellate court, which now ratified its earlier decision after rehearing the case.

This is the second case in which Lula was tried in Federal Court following Lava Jato investigations. The first was the Triplex case, for which he was convicted and imprisoned, from April 2018 to November 2019.

Former President Lula’s Defense Counsel Statement:

“Regarding the virtual trial finalized today (May 5th, 2020) by the 8th Panel of the Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region (TRF4)(“requests for clarification” – Records No. 5021365-32.2017.4.04. 7000/PR), we reiterate the ruling’s unfair and arbitrary nature, which upheld the conviction of ex-President Lula, originally enforced by a sentence handed down while “exploiting” yet another sentence handed down by ex-judge Sérgio Moro – who was also in charge of the investigation of the case with the bias that has always guided his actions in relation to Lula, as we have always shown and as was further corroborated by the Vaza Jato scandal. We further clarify that:

1 – It is significant that the TRF4, after having judged the prior appeal by means of a live and spectacular broadcast, has conducted this new trial, inconsistently, by virtual means, which does not even allow the defense attorneys to take part and, if necessary, to intervene as provided for by law (Lawyer’s Statute) to clarify facts or to raise relevant questions. This situation, in itself, is a violation of the constitutional guarantee of a broad defense and a violation of the attorneys’ rights.

2 – By rejecting the appeal, several omissions, contradictions and ambiguities pointed out in a 318-page appeal and related to key aspects of the case and the merits of the case, were not addressed – including the fact that Lula was convicted in this lawsuit based on the statement that “he would be the main articulator and guarantor of a corruption scheme that devastated Petrobras”, in clear contradiction to the final sentence that was handed down by the 12th. Federal Court of Brasília, which acquitted the ex-president of this conviction with the concurrence of the Federal Prosecutor (Criminal Case No. 1026137-89.2018.5.01.3400 – case known as “Quadrilhão”). In this decision handed down by the Federal Court of Brasília, the federal prosecutor, Dr. Marcos Vinicius Reis Bastos, stated with precision and in a manner irreconcilable with the decisions handed down in the case at hand, that “the distorted use of criminal accountability, as in the case of the criminal organization charge records lacking the objective and subjective elements, produces harmful impacts on democracy, among them the serious crisis of credibility and legitimacy of political power as a whole”.

3 – Despite the defense restrictions that were imposed during the investigation stage by the then Judge Sérgio Moro, we were able to prove, by expert examination of the alleged copy of Odebrecht’s systems that are in the possession of the Federal Police, that the R$700,000 that the MPF accused Lula of having received in an alleged reform at the Atibaia farm, were in fact collected in favor of a top executive of Odebrecht itself. The evidence, however, was simply disregarded by the ruling and also by the TRF4. Only the statements of whistleblowers who were benefited for accusing Lula were taken into consideration – including that of Marcelo Odebrecht, who in a later statement, given in a criminal case before the Federal Court in Brasília, acknowledged that “it is tremendously unfair to convict Lula without clarifying the contradictions in my father and Palocci’s statements”.

4 – As soon as the votes cast in the virtual trial are made available on the TRF4 platform, we will determine the appeal that will be lodged to reverse this absurd conviction.”

Source: G1