MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
“Surreal” to think Lula was not aware of the massive corruption schemes
“The president did not get involved with the details, but he was absolutely aware of the interests that encircled the management at Petrobras,” Amaral said in testimony 
Amaral was from the ruling Workers Party and was a key ally of Lula and former President Dilma Rousseff in the Senate until he was arrested last year Former Senator Delcídio do Amaral described as “surreal” the notion that former President Lula da Silva was not aware of a giant corruption scheme active during his tenure, in testimony on Monday marking the start of the trial against the man that ran Brazil from 2003 to 2010.
On trial for accepting bribes and money laundering in connection to a beachfront apartment, Lula says he has done nothing wrong, denies ownership of the property and denounces his prosecution as a witch-hunt. He has appealed to the United Nations saying his human rights have been violated by the investigation.
The trial is part of a broad probe into a massive government corruption scheme centered on the state-run oil company Petrobras in which the excess from overpriced contracts was used to pay political bribes.
“The president did not get involved with the details, but he was absolutely aware of the interests that encircled the management at Petrobras,” Amaral said in testimony that was released as recorded video.
“And then he (Lula) says ‘I didn’t know’,” Amaral added. “But the whole political class and all the Flamengo football fans knew. So it’s surreal that kind of affirmation.”
Amaral was from the ruling Workers Party and was a key ally of Lula and former President Dilma Rousseff in the Senate until he was arrested last year for corruption and turned state witness in return for a lesser sentence.
In a statement, Lula’s lawyers said no testimony given on Monday contained any proof that the former president had committed any crimes in relation to the Petrobras scandal or that he owned the beachfront apartment.
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Read all commentsPoor wee Lula....while Delcidio was top PT senator, he was privy to all the monkey-business commanded by Lula ; if anyone, besides Marcelo Odebrecht, knows what a rotten egg Lula is, it's Delcídio...Strangely, Lula and his family use several properties as their own - the country-home in Atibaia, the US$ 2 million mansion in Punta Del Este, an enormous cattle farm (thousands of hectares) in Pará, not to mention the beachfront 'triplex' in Guarujá - which he never got to use because the scandal broke before it was transferred to his name - and yet, none of them belong to him.
Nov 22nd, 2016 - 05:57 pm +1As the chips are down and the thieves keep sinking deeper into their own shit, the muck-raking, mud-slinging and finger-pointing will be more fierce. However, it will not be totally without any escape-hatch: REF: “Uruguay prepared to receive Lula if he requests political asylum”
Nov 22nd, 2016 - 11:42 pm +1In the latest bout of depositions by Lula's several accusers, Lula's lawyers had the nerve to accuse judge Moro of being a CIA agent, and that they were in cahoots to steal the subsalt oil reserves from Brazil.....sound absurd ? sure does, but's it's true...
Nov 23rd, 2016 - 06:51 pm 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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