Court fines Lula R$15,000 after PT member asks for votes for Marina and Tebet

The decision was announced on Tuesday (28) by the Regional Electoral Court of São Paulo after a representation presented by the Missão party. In the document, the party pointed out irregularities in statements made by Lula during an event held on May 19 in the Liberdade neighborhood.

The court also ordered the deletion of a video of the event on YouTube. The PT's defense can appeal the decision to the TRE-SP itself or to the TSE (Superior Electoral Court). Sought by UOL, has not yet commented.

At the time, the president stated that the public could "one day, vote for both." In the process, Lula's defense argued that the declaration "had a merely institutional character and was devoid of electoral content."

"The examined speech contains an unequivocal request for electoral support," said the judge in the decision. According to Ronnie Herbert Barros Soares, "there was an explicit request to vote, prohibited by electoral legislation". The fact that the statements came from Lula as President of the Republic served as an aggravating factor in the case.

Despite this, the judge understood that Marina and Tebet could not be held responsible for the episode. For Soares, the two had “no prior knowledge of the conduct or participation in its conduct”.