Lula’s Defense Takes to Court Against Work-Release Regime Petitioned by Lava Jato

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Attorney Cristiano Zanin Martins, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s defense counsel, said he will ask the court to reject the request by the Operation Lava Jato task force for the progression of the leftist’s sentence to the work-release regime.

The statement was made on Friday, October 18th, at the entrance to the Federal Police Office in Curitiba.

“The former president reiterated that he does not accept the MPF’s request for sentence progression because he will seek his complete freedom, his innocence, and the acknowledgment that he did not commit any crime,” said the attorney.

Prosecutors of the Operation Lava Jato task force in Curitiba requested the Court of Criminal Enforcement of Paraná’s judge Carolina Lebbos, on September 27th, for Lula to migrate to the work-release prison regime.

The petition is signed by 15 prosecutors, including the task force’s coordinator, Deltan Dallagnol.

Lula has been imprisoned since April 7th last year. He is serving an eight-year and 10-month sentence in the Guarujá (SP) triplex case, handed down by the Superior Court of Justice (STJ).

The progression of Lula’s sentence is conditional on the payment of amounts he is condemned to pay by the conviction, which his defense has been challenging in court since August.

Legal calculations indicate that the former president would be required to pay R$4.1 million (US$1.025 million) in fines and compensation for damages.

In the work-release regime, the prison sentence is now linked to labor and is served in agricultural or industrial colonies.

In practice, due to the absence of institutions of this type or their equivalent, Lula may start serving his sentence at home should the judge grant the sentence progression, in the so-called “semi-open” regime combined with electronic anklets – as was the case with  former PT treasurer João Vaccari Neto.