Failure to Provide Rent Receipt Puts Former President Lula in Delicate Situation

09/15/2017 - 11h29

If the hearing on Wednesday (the 13th) serves as a heads-up, the failure of former president Lula da Silva to provide the courts with rent receipt may be one of judge Sergio Moro's main reasons to sentence him a second time around.

Judge Moro, Lula and his attorneys argued for 12 minutes about how the former president rented the property next to his home, in São Bernardo do Campo (São Paulo) - a property that is suspected to be one of several bribes offered by construction firm Odebrecht.

The suspicion is among the main lines of investigation in the lawsuit which Lula provided testimony for.

According to the prosecution, engineer Glaucos da Costamarques bought the property with money belonging to construction firm DAG - which is considered one of Odebrecht's intermediaries - and handed it over to the former president without charging him any rent.

When Moro touched on the subject, Lula exonerated himself, holding former first lady Marisa Letícia - who died in February - accountable for paying rent. He promised to provide the courts with the receipts, which the judge found dubious.

Lula said he was going to turn his "drawers" upside down in order to find the receipts and showed signs of irritation as the judge insisted on his line of questioning.

Moro also said that Lula's attorneys did not supply bank deposit records and practically asked the same question to the former president nine times: "After this indictment was issued at the end of last year, couldn't you have asked the people around you to find out how this was payed for?"

The politician responded by criticizing the Public Prosecutor's Office and reiterated that he was unaware that rent payments hadn't been made.

Translated by THOMAS MATHEWSON

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	Reprodução
	Judge Moro, Lula and his attorneys argued for 12 minutes about how the former president rented the property next to his home