President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva commented this Friday (12), in São Paulo, on the decision of the US government to remove the Minister of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) Alexandre de Moraes and his wife, Viviane, from the list of those sanctioned by the Magnitsky Act. For Lula, the application of the law was unfair and the decision of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, to remove the sanctions against the Supreme Court minister “is good for Brazil and for Brazilian democracy”.
“Silvio Santos would be 95 years old [today] and Alexandre de Moraes turns 57 tomorrow. And I give him the gift of recognizing that it was not fair for a president of another country to punish a minister of the Brazilian Supreme Court simply because he was upholding the Brazilian Constitution,” said Lula during an event at SBT , in São Paulo.
Related news:
- The US removes Alexandre de Moraes and his wife from the Magnitsky Act list.
- “The truth prevailed,” says Moraes regarding the end of US sanctions.
- Lula criticizes sanctions and says Brazil is resisting in defense of democracy.
“And I was very happy with that fact and that recognition, but there are still more people [to be removed from law enforcement] because it is unacceptable that a president of one country can punish authorities of another country who are exercising democracy with his own laws. Therefore, your victory [Alexandre de Moraes] is a victory for Brazilian democracy,” the president added.
The Magnitsky Act is applied by the U.S. government as a sanction against foreigners. Minister Alexandre de Moraes was included on the list of those sanctioned in July of this year.
Earlier, Alexandre de Moraes also commented on the American decision. “The truth prevailed. And we can say with satisfaction and humility that it was a triple victory. First, the victory of the Brazilian Judiciary, which did not yield to threats or coercion and will not yield, continuing with impartiality, seriousness, and courage. It is also the victory of national sovereignty. President Lula, from the very first moment, said that the country would not allow any invasion of Brazilian sovereignty. And more than anything else, it was the victory of democracy,” stated Moraes.
Lula participated this Friday in the inauguration ceremony of the SBT News channel , which debuts next Monday (15). The inauguration ceremony took place on the same day that the founder of SBT , the former presenter Silvio Santos, who died last year, would have turned 95 years old.
During the event, the president also spoke about the importance of a free press for Brazilian democracy.
“A journalist doesn’t exist to judge. That’s the role of a judge. A journalist exists to inform, and to inform based on the truth. No matter who it hurts. And I say this with great authority, because I turned 80 on October 27th, surviving through my third term, and I have never called a journalist, a television station owner, or a newspaper owner to ask them not to publish a story against the government. The press is only useful if it is free. If it is partisan or ideologically driven, it fails to fulfill its role of properly informing society,” he stated.
Also present at the event were First Lady Janja Lula da Silva; the Vice President of the Republic, Geraldo Alckmin; Ministers Fernando Haddad (Finance); Sidônio Pereira (Social Communication); Frederico Siqueira (Communications) and Ricardo Lewandowski (Justice and Public Security); Supreme Court Justices Gilmar Mendes and Alexandre de Moraes; the Governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas; the Mayor of São Paulo, Ricardo Nunes; and the President of Empresa Brasil de Comunicação (EBC) , André Basbaum.
