Morning Star.png Lula, PT Slam Biased Corruption Charges James Tweedie, The Morning Star, London, 11 March 2016 Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday that charges of corruption levelled against him were politically biased. Sao Paolo prosecutor Cassio Conserino had filed charges that day in relation to money-laundering investigations. He alleged that Mr da Silva had concealed ownership of a seaside penthouse flat in the nearby town of Guaruja, the deeds to which are held by construction company OAS. The former Workers' Party president denied the allegations, stressing that he had already disproved them. In a statement released by the Lula Institute, Mr da Silva said that his family had put a down payment on a flat in the complex but later asked for a refund after the original developer folded and sold the project to OAS. "Lula is not the owner of the apartment . and has not committed any crime," the statement read. Mr da Silva says the property belongs to friends who allowed him to stay there on two occasions. It added that the former president had already supplied prosecutors with documents proving that he was not the owner, but that Mr Conserino had chosen to ignore them. "Cassio Conserino . made a prejudicial judgement before listening to the president, making it clear that he is not impartial." Mr da Silva pointed out that the allegations against him had already been decided on and leaked to the press before the investigation was complete. "There is no news in the charges by Sao Paulo's Attorney General's office, since they were announced in the magazine Veja on January 22 2016," it said. Mr da Silva and two of his sons were grilled for hours by federal investigators on Friday in connection with allegations of bribery at state oil company Petrobras that have been used to attack Mr da Silva's successor Dilma Rousseff. The investigators said they were looking into whether renovations at the Guaruja flat and another project at a country house used by the da Silva family constituted favours in exchange for political benefit. The Workers' Party (PT) denounced the interrogations, which were carried out a week after Mr da Silva indicated he may stand for the presidency again in 2018, as politically motivated. From: <http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-6472-Brazil-Lula-attacks-political-bia s-behind-corruption-charges#.VuJMNPl9600> http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-6472-Brazil-Lula-attacks-political-bias -behind-corruption-charges#.VuJMNPl9600 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
