Lula to run for president in Brazil

BRASíLIA, May 11, 2018 – Former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva plans to participate as a candidate in Brazil’s upcoming October presidential elections, international media reported on Thursday.

Lula, who has already held the presidency twice, is currently serving a more than 12-year prison sentence on charges of money laundering and corruption. He is working with lawyers to appeal his case to the Superior Court of Justice.

“If I accept the idea of not being a candidate, I will be assuming that I committed a crime,” Lula said in a letter to fellow politician Senator Gleisi Hoffmann. “I did not commit any crime, so I am a candidate until the truth appears and the media, judges and prosecutors show the crime I committed.”

The politician was jailed in early April after being convicted of taking bribes in exchange for influencing NOC Petrobras to award contracts to construction firm OAS.

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