Federal Prosecutors need to explain the contradictory and arbitrary nature of their actions against Lula

The Lula Institute and former President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva were surprised to learn that prosecutor Valtan Timbó
Mendes Furtado, of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Brasília, decided to open
a new investigative process on an issue that was already being examined by
Federal Prosecutor Mirella de Carvalho Aguiar.

It is an entirely irregular, untimely and
unjustified procedure, which is why appropriate action should be taken to
correct the arbitrary actions of the Federal Prosecutor’s office without
prejudice to other legally appropriate actions.

Unlike the reports that were leaked
anonymously to news organizations on Thursday afternoon (July 16), former
President Lula has never been the subject of “informal
investigation”.Nor is he “suspected” of any
criminal offense.The former president is actually
the target of a serious breach of conduct by Federal Prosecutor Anselmo Lopes,
who initiated this process and is therefore responding to charges at the Federal
Public Prosecutor’s Office

So that the truth can be revealed,
without manipulation or distortion of the facts, the Lula Institute offers the
following chronology of events:

April 12:The
newspaper O Globo published a report
of “secret flights” by former President Lula to the Dominican
Republic in April 2013, where he gave a lecture sponsored and paid for by the
Odebrecht company.Even after receiving all the
information about the trip provided by the Institute, the newspaper made an ordinary
event appear illegal: since 2011, after leaving the government, the former
president has made 78 trips abroad to give lectures, to receive honors, to participate
in debates and enhance Brazil’s image and disseminate Brazil’s social programs
to assist in the fight against hunger and poverty.On
most of these trips he gave speeches sponsored by companies, private entities
and government agencies in foreign countries – and all of these trips were
widely publicized in the Brazilian press and on the Lula Institute website.

April 20: Based
on the story in O Globo, other
newspapers and the Internet, Anselmo Lopes, as attorney in the Prosecutor’s
Office in the Federal District (FIES) published a “Notice of Fact”.In
the text containing only 50 lines, and offering no proof or evidence, the prosecutor
suggested that former president Lula “could,” “in theory”,
“perhaps” be suspected of international influence trafficking if a
“case were proved” that Odebrecht received special favors because the
authorities in foreign countries had been influenced to contract work by the
company.On the same day, the ” Notice of
Fact ” was distributed randomly to attorney Mirella de Carvalho Aguiar,
who was in charge of the decision to either archive the file, open an
investigation, or ask for due diligence and more information to prepare her
decision.

April 29:Without
any of the parties involved having been notified and before the order became
public knowledge, reporter Thiago Bronzatto, from Época obtained a copy of the “Notice of Fact” at the PRDF.Without
making any reference to the process that he obtained, the reporter questioned
the office of the Lula Institute about the former President’s trips mentioned
in the “Notice of Fact “.

April 30:In
an outrageously manipulated news item, under the title “Lula, the
operator”, on the webpage of the Época magazine on the Globo.com siteand
in the printed edition of the magazine, took the unfounded conclusions of
prosecutor Anselmo attorney as true. The magazine concealed the true nature of
the process from its readers and treated a mere “Notice of Fact” as
if it were part of the collective research being done by the Center for
Combating Corruption of the PRDF.Deliberately omitting the title,
the magazine doctored the official document, reproducing only the summary of
prosecutor Anselmo’s conclusions.

May 1: The
distortions in the Época magazine began to crumble when attorney Mirella Aguiar
told reporters of the O Estado de São
Paulo and O Globo that there was
no investigation against Lula and the “Notice of Fact ” was based on
published information in the press. She said that they have no validity as
evidence on their own.

May 4: The Lula
Institute published a note titled “The seven lies in the Época Magazine “ explaining the facts and exposing the editorial manipulation.The
magazine, in addition to not publishing our response, never bothered to reply
or acknowledge any mistake in the text.

May 6:The
Attorney representing former President Lula and the President of the Lula
Institute, Paul Okamotto asked for a meeting with Mirella Aguiar and
spontaneously offered clarification of the activities of the former president with
the Institute and as a lecturer represented by LILS Lectures and Events Ltda.

May 18: After
the initial 30 day period to decide how the “Notice of Fact” should
be dealt with, prosecutor Mirella Aguiar, issued a ruling that there was
insufficient evidence to open an inquiry.”The
few elements contained in the file – reports and stories by the representative
and the press are devoid of sufficient evidentiary support – they do not
support the establishment of formal investigation against the defendant,”
the prosecutor wrote.In the same order it deferred the
date for a decision for up to 90 days (in other words until August 17) and
requested information from Lula Institute, Odebrecht, the Federal Police, the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the BNDES, Líder Air Taxi company and others, to inform
her decision.

June 8: TheLula
Institute requests a 30-day extension of the deadline for providing
information.

June 19: Prosecutor Mirella Aguiar, issues an order again
extending the deadline for making representations and information until
September 18.

July 8:Federal
Prosecutor Valtan Timbó Mendes Furtado, in a decree, inexplicably decides to
open a criminal investigation, presenting as justification: a) the content of
the “Notice of Fact” and b) “the imminence of the expiration of the
deadline”,but also considering the insufficiency
of evidence for a deliciti opinion.Note
that the content of the ” Notice of Fact ” had already been
disqualified by the attorney Mirella Aguiar – the reason for the request for new
information.It should also be noted that on
July 8, only 40 days remained in the terms established in the first deadline
and 60 days remained in the terms established in the second deadline.

July 9: Under
the deadline, and absent the knowledge that the process had been literally taken
over by another prosecutor, the Lula Institute filed a document at the PRDF
with the information requested by Attorney Mirella Aguiar.

July 16: Incomplete
and distorted information anonymously leaked to Globo News, without hearing the Lula Institute, that disclosed the
incorrect information that “prosecutors” had decided to open an
investigation against former president Lula in the PRDF.

The Lula Institute and former president
Lula are unaware of the reasons why prosecutor Valtan Timbó Mendes Furtado,
interfered with the process that was being conducted by the Chief Prosecutor in
an inappropriate and arbitrary manner.

It is clear, therefore, that former
president Lula is the subject of manipulated information and arbitrary
decisions for the evident purpose of embarrassing and staining, under false
pretenses, the image of the most popular leader this country has ever had, both
in Brazil and abroad.

In light of these facts, former President
of the Republic Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and the Lula Institute, expect the
prosecutor to explain to the country why such contradictory and egregious
processes were used.

Press Office

The Lula Institute