by Yanis Iqbal / April 5th, 2021
SAO BERNARDO DO CAMPO, BRAZIL – MARCH 10: Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s former president, speaks during a press conference after convictions against him were annulled at the Sindicato dos Metalurgicos do ABC on March 10, 2021 in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil. (Photo by Alexandre Schneider/Getty Images)
On January 24, 2018, in Porto Alegre, Lula was tried at the Federal Court of Appeals for the Fourth Region (TRF-4), which confirmed the decision of Judge Sergio Moro and sentenced him to twelve years and one month in prison. According to the Clean Record Act, he would now be ineligible for the 2018 elections. The weaknesses of the case against Lula were widely denounced: lack of evidence, lack of right of defense, illegal confinement of witnesses, accusation of crimes that did not exist in the criminal code, abuse of process and bias against the defendant.