Former President Lula Indicted on Corruption Charges

09/12/2017 - 12h17

Former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was indicted on corruption charges by the Prosecutor's Office in the Federal District.

He is accused of nodding to an illegal offer made to him back in 2009, when he was still the president of Brazil.

The indictment, which was issued on Friday (the 8th) and released on Monday (the 11th), is connected to Operation Zelotes, which is being processed in the Federal District, and has maintained the former president as a defendant since last year.

According to the Prosecutor's Office, both Lula and his chief of staff Gilberto Carvalho, nodded to a kickback of R$ 6 million (US$ 1.94 million) in exchange for benefitting automakers MMC (currently HPE) and Caoa in provisional measure number 471, back in November of 2009.

The money would then be used to illegally fund the campaigns of the Workers' Party. According to the Prosecutor's Office, lawyer Mauro Marcondes and lobbyist Alexandre Paes dos Santos were in charge of the corruption scheme.

Lula denied all accusations. A statement issued by the Lula Institute read that the Public Prosecutor's Office "takes advantage of its prerogatives" in order to "promote the political persecution" of the former president. The statement also read that the indictment was "injurious and immoral".

The prosecutors who signed the indictment are demanding that the union receive R$ 12 million (US$ 3.9 million) in compensation, as well as the application of fines for collective moral damages.

Translated by THOMAS MATHEWSON

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	Miguel Schincariol/AFP
	Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva (C) speaks during a press conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil