Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva vows to run for highest office again in 2018 and says at Workers’ party headquarters: ‘They haven’t taken me out of the game’

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has launched a defiant public defence after being convicted of corruption and money laundering, and vowed to run for president next year.

“If anyone thinks that with this sentence they will pull me out of the game, they should know that I am in the game,” Lula told supporters at the headquarters of his Workers’ party a day after he received a nearly 10-year sentence for accepting bribes in return for helping an engineering company win contracts with the state oil company Petroleo Brasileiro, or Petrobras.

In a brief, at times emotional speech, Silva told supporters in São Paulo that the court had no proof and the conviction was politically motivated. To cheers, he said he wanted to run for re-election next year.

“From this moment, I want to ask the Workers’ party for the right to be a candidate for president,” he shouted.

“Lula for president!” the crowd responded.

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The ruling marked a stunning setback for Lula, one of the country’s most popular politicians, and a serious blow to his chances of a political comeback. The former union leader, who won global praise for policies to reduce harsh inequality in Brazil, faces four more trials and will remain free on appeal.



If his conviction is upheld on appeal, Lula will be barred from office, removing the front-runner from the 2018 race and opening the door to outsiders playing to widespread outrage over a deep economic recession and evidence of vast political graft.



Lula remains Brazil’s best-known politician and has retained a base of loyal supporters despite his legal woes. As president, he put resources from a commodities boom into social programs helping to lift millions from poverty.



Lula characterized the verdict against him as part of Brazilian elites’ backlash against his legacy, denying any wrongdoing and excoriating the decision handed down by Judge Sergio Moro, who has overseen a sweeping three-year graft inquiry.



Wearing a bright red shirt under his dark blazer, Lula’s appeal to fellow partisans was folksy and upbeat, soliciting laughter and cheers from party elders and a crowd of hundreds outside the Workers’ party offices in downtown São Paulo.



The former president said he continued to support strong democratic institutions, including police and prosecutors, but he lamented what he called politically driven lies in the case against him.