There are, from the legal point of view, recourses that can be used to secure Lula’s release, but international pressure is needed. “It is necessary that the honest people of the world demand an end to this injustice,” stated Luiz Eduardo Greenhalgh, lawyer of former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in a meeting held in José Garcerán Hall of the University of Havana’s Law School.
“Lula is a victim of political persecution, the proceedings against him have no proof, evidence, nothing,” he stressed. “Interestingly, the person who was behind the incarceration of Lula, once Bolsonaro won the election, was invited to be Minister of Justice. It is already known that the coordination between that judge and the current president came before the election.”
Greenhalgh, a founder of the Brazilian Workers’ Party (PT), explained at the meeting that Lula is treated like a criminal, disrespecting his rights, with the sole purpose of preventing his political activity. “Lula remains in a small prison space, which is cruel. I’m 70 years old, I fought against the dictatorship, and I’m disillusioned on seeing him in those conditions.”
Lula is suffering in prison. He has already lost his brother, his grandson, and is being prevented from communicating with the people. He can only talk to his lawyers, and he has restricted access to the media. He has no possibility of permanent religious assistance, and receives his children just once a week, the defense lawyer said.
In his statements, Greenhalgh emphasized that what has happened to Lula is inexplicable. According to the Brazilian justice system, it usually takes about a year and a half for the accused to be imprisoned following the issuing of a sentence. In the case of Lula, just three months later, he was jailed. “What they wanted was to destroy him, to publicly humiliate him.”
The trial against Lula is linked to the United States, its Department of Justice, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where everything was hatched; from there the lawsuits against Dilma and against Lula were prepared. “It’s no wonder President Jair Bolsonaro’s first visit in the United States was to the CIA,” the lawyer denounced.
“For me, as a Brazilian, everything that has happened to Lula is a disgrace, I won’t rest until the day I can leave with him, free,” he stressed.
Only a strong global campaign of solidarity with Lula can result in his release. Greenhalgh commented that when he told the former President of the Cuban government’s decision to build a global campaign for his release, he responded: “I wouldn’t expect anything less of the Cubans.”
Cuban law professors and students, attending the meeting, expressed their unconditional support for the former president, and the confidence that justice will prevail and Lula will be freed.