| The Brazilian Workers' Party (PT) organized demonstrations -- on February 7 in São Paulo, Porto Alegre, Cuiabá, and in Recife on February 8 as well as in other cities across the country -- in support of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was, without grounds, condemned by Judge Gabriela Hardt on February 6 to 12 years and 11 months in prison. "Once again Lula is condemned with no evidence. The president, who did the most for the Brazilian people, is now a political prisoner," the PT affirmed in a manifesto published on social networks. The PT also called for its members to concentrate in Curitiba, where Lula has been serving a jail sentence of 12 years and one month for another case, since April 2018. Professor Fernando Haddad, who was Lula's replacement in the presidential race held in October 2018, highlighted that both the struggle for Lula's liberation and the workers' fight against the setbacks of democracy in Brazil are part of the same political process. "We want fairness, we want justice. We want every decision of a judge to be based on evidence, not on conviction," Haddad said outside the PT headquarters in São Paulo, and added, "I speak here, not as Lula's friend or as a PT member. I speak as a citizen who is concerned with the destiny of our country and with the lack of impartiality of justice." According to the PT, the new sentence against the former president of Brazil is "full of errors" and represents "another episode of a judicial persecution plot which aims to dissolve Lula's political leadership." Eugênio Aragão, a former Minister of Justice who cooperates with the PT leader's defence, stated that Lula's cases will not be resolved favourably through the judiciary because all lawsuits against him have been politically constructed. "A favourable outcome for the Lula case will be political, not judicial. The accusation and the sentence against him are political... they are part of a corporate project of the Public Ministry and the Judicial Branch," Aragão explained, confirming that the new sentence lacks evidence, while stating that the real goal is to keep Lula in prison. |