Brazil Workers' Party Says Convicted Members Will Be Expelled

05/05/2015 - 11h05

The Workers' Party (PT) will say, on Tuesday (5), during its TV and radio programs, that any member who is accused and convicted in lawsuit will be expelled from the party. Still, the promise is different from the treatment given to the party's leaders convicted in the mensalão case.

Folha has learnt the National President of the Workers' Party, Rui Falcão, will state that the affiliates who commit wrongdoings and illegal acts will not stay in the party.

Despite Falcão's announcement, the party keeps among its members the former minister José Dirceu and its former president José Genoino, both convicted by the Supreme Federal Court in the mensalão scandal.

Former treasurer of the Workers' Party Delúbio Soares, also pleaded guilty in the mensalão case, was expelled at the height of the scandal, in 2005. In 2011, however, he rejoined the party.

The TV and radio programs will be broadcasted at 8:30 pm and they will be ten minutes long. It will not mention the Operation Car Wash, which investigates corruption at Petrobras.

In one of the stages of the probe, earlier this year, the then Treasurer of the Workers' Party, João Vaccari, was arrested by the Federal Police and then removed from post.

As a solution to fight corruption, the party will defend on TV the end of private funding and say that their directories will not receive donations of this kind anymore. The decision was taken by its leaders on April 17, two days after Vaccari was arrested.

Translated by JULIANA CALDERARI

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	Fabio Braga/Folhapress
	Former president Lula da Silva and national president of the Workers' Party, Rui Falcão