Lula honors former rector of UFSC Luiz Carlos Cancellier – 07/12/2023 – Daily life

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) spoke this Wednesday (12), during an event at the Planalto Palace, on the death of professor Luiz Carlos Cancellier.

“We cannot fail to remember our companion, the rector of the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Luiz Carlos Cancellier”, said the president during the ceremony for the delivery of the National Order of Scientific Merit, in Brasília.

“Whenever we can, we have to remember the people who were victims of the will, so that this will, this insanity, never happens again in our country”, Lula told the audience, made up of ministers and researchers.

The speech took place a few days after the TCU (Tribunal de Contas da União) expressed its opinion on the representation that dealt with alleged irregularities at the UFSC (Federal University of Santa Catarina), which were the target of the Federal Police (PF) and involved the name of Cancellier.

On the last 4th, the ministers of the court decided to archive the representation for considering it unfounded, as stated in the judgment nº 6540/2023.

“Today, almost six years later, society receives the news of his innocence, even more, that there is no pending matter at the TCU involving Cancellier. UFSC reiterates its position for the right to full defense and due legal procedure, regretting that Professor Cancellier is not among his colleagues to follow up on this important clarification of the case,” the university said in a statement.

Lula had already commented on the case in January. For the president, the former dean was a victim of Operation Lava Jato and of people who sought to punish before investigating the facts.

After the TCU’s decision, the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, announced that he will ask the PF to initiate a disciplinary administrative process.

understand the case

Elected rector of UFSC in 2016, Cancellier was arrested in September 2017 in the operation Ouvidos Moucos by the Federal Police, which was investigating an alleged diversion of resources from distance education programs for renting vehicles. According to the PF, he would have tried to obstruct the investigations, which the dean denied.

The professor was released one day after the arrest, but remained away from UFSC by court decision.

“This separation is an exile. I live three meters from the university. I leave the house and I’m inside the university. And I can’t enter the house where I live and have lived together since 1977. The demonstrations give me comfort. The body is very suffering, but solidarity comforts the soul”, said Cancellier in an interview given at the time to Diário Catarinense.

A few days later, the professor committed suicide. A note found next to his body carried the following message: “My death was decreed on the day of my removal from the university”.