Both Lula da Silva and his defense team have invariably stressed his innocence of the corruption charges against him. | Photo: pt.org

Brasilia, February 16 (RHC)-- New evidence of the political nuance of the judicial sanctions imposed on the former president of Brazil, Luis Inazio Lula da Silva, have come to light, when the former commander of the Brazilian Army, retired general Eduardo Villas Bôas, confirmed the military pressure to the Supreme Court to imprison the former president and thus stop his participation in the 2018 elections.

This is not the first compelling evidence that demonstrates the political interest that motivated the prosecution and conviction of the former president, to the detriment of legality and justice.

In an interview published in the book "General Villas Bôas: Conversation with the Commander," recently published by the Getulio Vargas Foundation, the former commander affirmed that the publications made by him on the social network Twitter, on the eve of Lula's habeas corpus trial in 2018, were articulated between the military high command and the Supreme Federal Court (STF).  The intention was to achieve the rejection of the petition and thus prevent Lula from being able to appeal in freedom and take part in the elections of that year.

A day before the high court hearing, the former Army commander of the Dilma Rousseff and Michel Temer administration said on Twitter that the institution appreciated the respect for the Constitution, social peace and democracy, and that it shared the wishes of good citizens and repudiated impunity.

Villas Bôas said that releasing the former governor on that date was "a risk to the country's institutionality" and hinted at the possibility of a military intervention in case this benefit had been granted.

The former commander also revealed that it was under his command that the military got involved in politics again and sought a candidate who could defeat the left, represented by Lula's PT, in the 2018 presidential elections.

For Villas Bôas, the current president, the ultra-right-wing Jair Bolsonaro was the only viable option to defeat the left in 2018 and to ensure the uniformed a leading role in Brazilian politics.

In 2019, the exchange of messaging between Sergio Moro and Deltan Dallagnol, judge and prosecutor, respectively, of the Lava Jato case, as well as between them and other judicial actors, came to light. These messages make clear the intervention of Moro in the criminal investigation, which is inappropriate from any point of view, as it compromises judicial impartiality in the criminal process.

In fact, according to the leaked messages, Moro gave opinions and lobbied for actions of exclusive competence of the Public Prosecutor's Office to be carried out within the framework of the investigation, such as raids and searches, even influencing the order of these.

A suggestive element is that Moro, after Lula's conviction and the defeat of the PT in the 2018 elections, was appointed by President Jair Bolsonaro as Minister of Justice, a highly relevant position in the Brazilian Government, which the former judge held for 17 months.