Brazil's Supreme Federal Court postponed for the second semester of 2019 the review of the request for freedom of former President Lula da Silva.

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (SFT) has decided to delay former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s Habeas Corpus Trial. The hearing which was supposed to examine Lula's defense request for his freedom, and was initially scheduled to start Tuesday.

According to Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo, STF judge, Gilmar Mendes, said the case will be postponed for the second semester of the year because of a lack of time to debate it. The country's top court also placed the case as the last one to be treated on the agenda, as 11 other cases will be analyzed before it.

The habeas corpus was presented by Lula's defense last year when then-judge Sergio Moro accepted Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s appointment to lead the Justice Ministry. This time around it was expected that the request to be analyzed on June 25 by a Second Panel of the STF.

The procedure had already entered the agenda of the Supreme Court on December 2018, yet the trial was suspended on December 4 after Mendes requested a hearing. At the time of the halt, the score was two votes against Lula's HC by rapporteur Edson Fachin and judge Carmen Lucia.

With the partial vote, and as the trial has been cleared, judges Mendes, Celso de Mello, and Ricardo Lewandowski still have to vote.

After Glenn Greenwald’s The Intercept Brazil published an extensive and hard-hitting expose on the alleged political motivations behind Operation Car Wash (Lava Jato) task force against Lula on June 9, the magister Mendes, cleared for trial on June 10 the request for freedom.

The documents revealed how prosecutors and current Super Minister of Justice Sergio Moro the alleged “apolitical” and “unbiased” team spent hours internally plotting how to prevent the return to power by Lula and his Workers’ Party.

Moro ruled against Lula and rendered him ineligible to run in the 2018 presidential election at a time when all polls showed that the former president was the clear frontrunner. This gave far-right Jair Bolsonaro a strong lead that resulted in his presidency win.

Bolsonaro then, according to many, “rewarded” Moro by creating an unprecedented powerful position now called the “super justice minister,” which has complete control over all the judicial branch, policing and social control in Brazilian society.

The Brazilian Bar Association also recommended disbanding all prosecutors involved in the case "so that the investigation can run without any suspicions.” Even center-right congressman Marcelo Ramos from the Republic's Party said that Moro should temporarily step down as the justice minister, as it would give the federal police, under his authority, the freedom to investigate him if necessary.

As this unfolds, Lula is currently serving 431 days in prison for alleged acts of corruption.