Brasilia : Brazil’s supreme court is to rule on Wednesday on whether former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva should start a 12 year prison sentence for corruption, potentially upending this year’s presidential election.
The court showdown in the capital Brasilia is a key battle for Brazil’s deeply polarised electorate ahead of the October polls, in which Lula is currently the heavy favourite, despite his legal problems. Late yesterday, up to 20,000 people demonstrated in Brazil’s biggest city, Sao Paulo, to demand Lula go to prison and be barred from the election. More protests — for and against Lula — were planned in Brasilia on Wednesday, with demonstrators separated by a metal barrier and heavy police presence.
The head of the army, General Eduardo Villas Boas, tweeted that the military shared Brazilians’ “desire for the repudiation of impunity.”
The comment, likely to be seen as backing prison for Lula, was a rare foray into politics by a general in a country that was under military dictatorship for two decades until 1985.
Villas Boas also asked “who is really thinking about the good of the country and future generations and who is only worried about personal interests?”