President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) stated this Monday (11) that he did not know about the existence of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The statement was made at a press conference after the G20 summit in New Delhi, India.
"I didn't even know about the existence of this court," said the PT member, adding that he intended to investigate the reason why Brazil was a signatory to the Rome Statute, the court's founding treaty, while great powers such as the United States and China were not. "It seems to me that the countries of the UN Security Council are not signatories, only the 'little ones'", he added.
There is, however, a series of evidence that Lula is, indeed, aware of the existence of the court. In February 2003, he was involved in the appointment of the first Brazilian judge to participate in the court, Sylvia Steiner. Furthermore, as Folha showed, he and other PT leaders spoke out in favor of the ICC in recent years, defending that the body should judge Jair Bolsonaro (PL) for crimes against humanity related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Translated by Cassy Dias