translated from Spanish: Condemns Haddad, Lula’s dolphin, for illegal campaign financing

Fernando Haddad, former candidate for the October workers’ party (PT) elections, replacing the imprisoned and disabled former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, will appeal in the release the decision of prime sentence disregard for four years and six months in semi-open prison, issued on Monday and released on Tuesday (20.08.2019).
Brazilian judge Francisco Carlos Inouye Shintate, from the first electoral zone of Sao Paulo, attributes to Haddad in his sentence a crime of “falsification of documents for electoral purposes”, based on “258 false statements of expenses in graphic material”, during its campaign for the mayoralty of Brazil’s economic capital.
“Falsification of documents for electoral purposes”
“These statements refer to invoices for services provided by graphic companies that did not prove they had printed the artwork,” the Regional Electoral Tribunal of Sao Paulo explains in a statement.
The magistrate acquitted the former mayor of Sao Paulo in the same case of criminal association and money laundering offences.
Haddad, defeated by Jair Bolsonaro last October, had been denounced in September by the Prosecutor’s Office for allegedly receiving 2.6 million reais (USD 1.2 million at the average exchange rate that year) from UTC Engenharia S.A., in 2012, to pay a debt incurred during the election campaign, in exchange for favoring the company in its links with the public administration.
The complaint, which was based by former UTC president Ricardo Pessoa, on an award-winning delation agreement, argues that that company would have transferred the money directly to the graphic companies owned by a member of the PT environment.
“False accusations to the PT and its leaders”
In statements released by the local press, Haddad announced that he will appeal the judgment at second instance and stated that the judgment “lacks logic”, as the judge convicted him of something that was not included in the Prosecution’s complaint.
In a statement, the PT recalled that the Court of Justice of Sao Paulo filed this case by criminal proceedings in February. “This unfair and arbitrary sentence is part of the latest episodes of illegal leaks and unproven allegations to incriminate the PT and its leaders with false accusations,” he says.
Lula (2003-2010) has been purporting, since April 2018, an 8-year, 10-month prison sentence on corruption charges he denies.

Original source in Spanish