Lula's Letter to Brazil's People: I Won't Bargain my Freedom

In an open letter to the Brazilian people, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva affirmed that he 'won’t trade my dignity for my freedom."

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"Every single Car Wash Prosecutor should really to apologize to the Brazilian people, to the millions of unemployed people, and my family, for the harm they have done to democracy, to justice, and the country," he said in a moving letter written from the Curitiba jail where he has been imprisoned since February.

He condemned "the arbitrary acts" he endured because of the Prosecutors and by former judge Sergio Moro, adding that it was "up to the Supreme Court now to make amendments so that there be independent and impartial justice."

In February, the founder of the Workers' Party was sentenced to 12 years and 11 months in prison in criminal proceedings for the reforms carried out at the Santa Bárbara estate in Atibaia, which was allegedly handed over as a bribe.

Lula has always declared his innocence and that he is the victim of judicial and political persecution that seeks to avoid his return to the presidency.