Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) defended this Thursday (23) the “right to defense” as a “monumental value of democracy” when commenting on the arrest of former Minister of Education Milton Ribeiro, but criticized the former member of the Bolsonaro government for being a “bad minister of education”.
The PT also classified the allegations of negotiations with pastors at the Ministry of Education (MEC) as a “national shame”. The statements were made in an interview with radio Difusora do Amazonas.
“I think that the arrest depends on investigation, it depends on evidence. You can’t arrest because you’re going to arrest. Not. Do you have evidence against the citizen? Is it proven that he stole? You file a lawsuit and then the Justice decides whether to arrest or not”, said the former president.
In the interview, Lula defended the “right to defense for everyone”, but criticized Ribeiro’s administration at the MEC. “The right to defense is a monumental value of democracy in this country, and that’s why I don’t know if he was investigated, if he has a judge’s authorization to arrest him, but that he was a bad Minister of Education, he was”, he said.
The PT member called the meetings publicized by the press between Ribeiro and ministers in the ministry shameful. “That meeting of him handing out money to a pastor is a national disgrace,” he said.
The former minister was arrested on Wednesday (22) in an operation by the Federal Police (PF) that investigates suspected influence peddling and corruption for the release of public funds in the MEC. Ribeiro must undergo a custody hearing this Thursday.
Abortion in rape cases
Also during the interview, Lula was asked what he thought about the right to abortion in cases of rape. According to the former president, “the law already guarantees that the rape victim has the right to have an abortion legally and protected by Brazilian medicine”.
In April, PT was criticized by bolsonaristas and evangelicals for saying that “everyone should have the right to abortion in Brazil”. After the repercussion of the statement, he returned to talk about the issue and said he was “against abortion”. “I have five children, eight grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. I am against abortion. What I said is that this issue of abortion needs to be turned into a public health issue,” he said at the time.
*Posted by Estevão Bertoni
Source: CNN Brasil
