Pope says Lula was convicted without evidence and that Dilma has “clean hands”

In an interview with the Argentine channel C5N, given before his hospitalization for a respiratory infection, Pope Francis defended President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and former President Dilma Rousseff (both from the PT), saying that the former was condemned by the Justice without evidence and that the second was unfairly impeached.

Journalist Gustavo Sylvestre asked a question about lawfare, the concept under which Justice is used to persecute opponents, and alleged that this type of persecution had occurred against Lula and former left-wing presidents Evo Morales (Bolivia), Rafael Correa ( Ecuador) and Cristina Kirchner (Argentina).

“Lawfare paves the way in the media. A certain person must be prevented from reaching a position. So, people disqualify them and put the suspicion of a crime there. So, a whole summary is made, a huge summary, where there is no [a prova do crime], but the size of this summary is enough to condemn. ‘Where is the crime here?’ ‘But, yes, it seems so…’ That’s how they condemned Lula”, replied Francisco.

The pope added: “Speaking of Brazil, what happened to Dilma Rousseff?” Sylvestre opined that the PT candidate was impeached in 2016 for “a minor administrative act”, to which Francisco responded with praise for the former president: “A woman with clean hands, an excellent woman”.

Francis also addressed the legal concept of Fumus Delicti (proof or evidence of a crime), pointing out: “Sometimes the smoke of crime takes you to the fire of crime, at other times it is a smoke that is lost because it has no foundation”.

Sylvestre ended the part of the conversation about Brazil by saying that “innocents are condemned”, and the pope spoke again: “In Brazil, this happened in both cases”.