Lula: ‘Braga Netto has the right to the presumption of innocence, but if he did it, he should be punished’

After being discharged from the hospital this Sunday morning, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) spoke about the arrest of retired general Walter Braga Netto and stated that the soldier must be punished “severely” if his participation in the attempt to coup d’état.

“I think he has every right to the presumption of innocence. What I didn’t have, I want him to have. But if they did what they think they did, I want them to be severely punished,” said Lula at a press conference at Hospital Sírio-Libanês. “It is not possible to accept disrespect for democracy”, says Lula about the general’s arrest.

Indicted by the PF in the investigation investigating an attempted democratic rupture resulting from the electoral defeat of then president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), Braga Netto was preventively arrested this Saturday for obstruction of justice.

He is the first four-star general arrested since the country’s redemocratization. He was minister of the Civil House and Defense and candidate for vice on Bolsonaro’s ticket in 2022.

(with Estadão Conteúdo)