Thread by @BrianMteleSUR

The media treated Lula as guilty before proven innocent for years, normalizing Bolsonaro's rise. Last week, he was declared innocent of the 26th charge related to the US DOJ/Brazilian Public Prosecutors Lava Jato investigation. In this thread I'll briefly describe all 26 cases+

My source here is non-profit, TeleSur media partner @brasildefato, which is systematically ignored by most Anglo journalists - even so-called leftists - despite its enormous reach and deep connections with the MST.

1. Last week Lula a Brasilia court threw out charges against Lula from the "Superminister" case, which alleged that Dilma Rousseff tried to give Lula a cabinet position to protect him from corruption prosecution. The Court ruled Judge Sergio Moro had illegally doctored evidence.

In 2016, US-backed Lava Jato judge Sergio Moro illegally wiretapped a phone conversation between Lula and Rousseff. In it, Lula expressed worries that his appointment would be spun as an attempt to avoid prosecution. Moro edited it to imply the opposite, and leaked it to Globo TV

2. In 2021 the Guaruja Triplex Apartment case conviction was reversed by the Brazilian Supreme Court. The prosecution never provided any material evidence that it belonged to Lula - just one coerced plea bargain testimony that was changed 3 times. brasilwire.com/sao-paulo-cour…

3. The Atibaia Vacation House. The defense team proved the house belonged to the former Mayor of Campinas (a family friend) and that Lula had never received illicit money to reform it. The Supreme Court reversed the biased conviction in 2021. therealnews.com/lula-da-silvas…

4.The Atibaia case was reversed by the Supreme Court for illegal forum shopping, but allowed charges to be refiled in Brasilia. When a Brasilia prosecutor tried, however,it was dismissed for having no evidence, proving it never should have gone to trial in the first place.

5. In 2018 Lava Jato Judge Sergio Moro ordered the complete paralyzation of the Lula Institute, claiming the land it was built on was illegally donated by a big construction company in exchange for govt. contracts (after Lula left office). Lula's defense proved this was a lie.

6. Chief Lava Jato prosecutor Delton Dallagnol held a circus-like press conference in 2016, accusing Lula of leading an international organized crime group. The charges were thrown out for lack of proof & Dallagnol was ordered to pay damages to Lula in civil court for defamation

7. Donations to the Lula Institute. Years of internal and external audits enabled Lula's defense team to prove - contrary to frivolous Lava Jato allegations - that the private and institutional donations to the Lula Institute, which stores presidential archives, were fully legal.

8. "Quadrilhão 2" A second frivolous charge that Lula was the head of an international organized crime group was dismissed by a Brasilia Federal Court for lack of evidence.

9. Lula won a defamation suit against Ex-Senator Delcidio Amaral for lying about him in his coerced plea bargain testimony.

10. In 2015 ex-Lava Jato judge Sergio Moro accused Lula of receiving illegal donations by giving fake speaking engagements. After these charges made the international news cycle, they were quickly debunked by accountants & his defense team and dropped - the speeches were real.

11. After resigning as Lava Jato Judge to become Bolsonaro's Justice Minister, Sergio Moro invoked a Dictatorship era National Security Law, accusing Lula of "offending the President's honor", for commenting on his son's relationship with militias. The case was quickly dismissed.

12. Lula's son Luis Cláudio was victim of a trumped up coerced plea bargain testimony which prosecutors used to accuse him of money laundering through an amateur American Football league. Later it came out that the witness had lied to please prosecutors to get out of jail.

13. Lula's brother, ex-union leader Frei Chico, was hired by Odebrecht to mediate union disputes in the 90s. The Lava Jato team used this as a starting point to charge him with influence peddling. The Federal Judge who dismissed the case called it "inept and full of assumptions"

14. Charges that Lula had used his influence over Odebrecht to favor a construction subcontracting job to a company owned by his nephew where thrown out by a Brasilia judge in 2020 for lack of evidence. conjur.com.br/2020-set-01/in…

15. After Lula's political imprisonment, Guilherme Boulos and other MTST activists entered the Guaruja apartment and showed the world the "illegally funded reforms" Lava Jato had convicted Lula over had never taken place. Charges against MTST were dropped by a Federal Judge.

16. The Lava Jato team tried to build trumped-up charges against the only Brazilian mainstream media outlet that critically analyzed Lava Jato, Carta Capital. The charges were so flimsy that the Federal Police convinced them to drop them before filing.

17. Lula was accused of receiving illicit payment in exchange for prolonging tax breaks to the auto manufacturing industry. With no evidence, the Public Prosecutors withdrew the charges.

18. In August, 2021, Federal Regional Court 3 dropped charges against Lula, ruling that a Brazilian company that does business in Equatorial Guinea making a charitable donation to the Lula Institute does not constitute "international influence peddling". conjur.com.br/2021-ago-10/tr…

19. In June, 2021, a Brasilia judge threw out more frivolous charges made by Sergio Moro against Lula, ruling that there was no evidence that he had ordered BNDES to favor Odebrecht in construction projects in Angola. cartacapital.com.br/cartaexpressa/…

20. During coerced Lava Jato plea bargain testimony that led to 70% sentence reduction, businessman Leo Pinheiro accused Lula of international influence peddling for OAS Engineering with the Gov. of Costa Rica. Resulting charges were dismissed for lack of material evidence.

21. When Brasilia prosecutors attempted to reopen the Lava Jato Atibaia vacation property case for a second time, a judge dismissed it once again, this time definitely, for not having any material evidence.

22. Lava Jato filed tax evasion charges for two properties, the Guaruja Triplex apartment and the Atibaia vacation home, that they were unable to ever prove that Lula owned. Consequently, charges were dropped. redebrasilatual.com.br/politica/2021/…

23. Tax evasion charges against three of Lula's sons were dropped for lack of evidence after the Supreme Court declared Sergio Moro as suspect of judicial bias ruling all of his investigations null and void. It later came out that Lava Jato prosecutors had forged evidence.

24. When Brasilia prosecutors tried to reopen the Guaruja Triplex apartment case for the second time, the Federal Court officially closed the case for lack of evidence and ruled it can never be reopened.

25. Corruption charges related to the Lula Government's purchase of Saab Gripen fighter jets were dismissed after Lula's defense team convinced the Supreme Court that they were frivolous and part of Lava Jato's "Lula Plan" to incriminate the former President.

Finally, 26. Obstruction of justice charges based on Lula's accepting a cabinet position in the Dilma Rousseff administration were dismissed due to their relationship to the farcical Lava Jato investigation.

Back during the lead up to the coup, when I still occasionally bumped into Anglo Brazil correspondents in Rio bars, I heard arrogant Guardian contributors say things like, "it's so many corruption charges. Lula must be guilty of something." This shows ignorance of Brazil.

During his 8 years in the Brazilian Presidency, Fernando Henrique Cardoso was charged with corruption crimes 108 times. New York Times and Guardian treated him as innocent until proven guilty. Was it because his economic policies pleased their corporate advertisers?

Here is a link to the @brasildefato article that I got this info from - it's not a direct translation but is inspired by this article brasildefato.com.br/2022/08/14/lul…