Brazil justice annuls Lula da Silva's sentences, enabling 2022 run

A day after graft convictions of Brazil's leftist former President Luiz Inácio 'Lula' da Silva were overturned, he may see the evidence against him thrown out by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, clearing his name ahead of a possible 2022 presidential run.

The Supreme Court said Justice Gilmar Mendes had called a Tuesday vote on an appeal by Lula's legal team alleging that Sérgio Moro, the former judge who sentenced him, was not impartial in overseeing investigations of the former president.

Messages published in 2019 by The Intercept Brasil show Moro colluding with prosecutors against Lula for political reasons; he was later named Justice Minister in the Bolsonaro regime.

If the top court rules in Lula's favor, it would cap a stunning reversal of fortunes for one of Brazil's most popular and divisive figures, whose political hopes appeared decimated by the corruption cases against him in recent years.

If he runs, the leftist firebrand, 75, would immediately be the leading rival next year against far-right President Jair Bolsonaro - whose popularity has suffered in the face of a raging pandemic, rising inflation and stretched public finances.

At: https://news.yahoo.com/lula-2022-hopes-brighten-brazils-162148124.html

Former Brazilian President Lula da Silva rallies supporters for a São Paulo candidate in November's municipal elections.

Despite his Workers' Party (PT) faring poorly in last year's municipal races, polling still shows Lula as the front-runner should he compete in the country's 2022 presidential elections.

His 19-month imprisonment in 2018-19 - obtained solely on testimony from a contractor kept in a rat-infested dungeon until he incriminated him - paved the way for the 2018 election of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.

The UN considered his detention arbitrary.

President Alberto Fernández, in neighboring Argentina, celebrated the ruling, noting a pattern of "using a witness to incriminate (center-left) Latin American leaders, with absolutely weak evidence, to get them out of races."