Massive protests in Brazil against ex-Prez Lula's jailing
3 May 2018 3:12 AM IST
Curitiba (Brazil): Several thousand people have protested the jailing of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the southeastern Brazilian city where he is serving a sentence for corruption.
At least 6,000 protesters marked on Tuesday's Labour Day holiday by calling attention to what they say is the unfair imprisonment of the former union leader in the city of Curitiba.
Music groups performed and politicians spoke. Many protesters wore red, the colour of da Silva's Workers' Party, and carried signs calling for the former president to be freed or urging the ouster of the judge who convicted him.
Da Silva began serving his sentence in April after he was convicted amid Brazil's corruption investigation. He denies wrongdoing and says the charges were concocted to prevent him from running in October's presidential elections.
Earlier, Lula along with the current leader of the Workers Party he founded, were hit with fresh corruption charges by federal prosecutors.
Authorities allege that Lula, along with Senator Gleisi Hoffmann, who is leading the beleaguered Workers Party, were given access to a $40 million slush fund in 2010 funded by construction company Construtora Odebrecht [ODBES.UL], in exchange for government decisions that would benefit the company.
Lula's lawyers and Odebrecht did not immediately respond to comment request. The Workers Party said in a statement that the accusations were unfounded.
Also charged in the alleged scheme were Antonio Palocci, who served as Finance Minister under Lula and who last week signed a plea deal with prosecutors, along with Paulo Bernardo, who was Lula's planning minister. Palocci has been in jail since 2016 and was found guilty in a different graft trial last year.
Lula was jailed on April 7 and is serving a 12-year sentence for a bribery conviction. The former leader already faces another six separate trials on graft charges.
Hoffmann and Bernardo, her husband, are both also facing a separate trial in the sweeping Lava Jato corruption probe, an unprecedented push against corruption in Latin America's biggest economy that has seen scores of powerful politicians and businessmen jailed for corruption.
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