UN: Brazil’s Lula was illegally barred from 2018 race

By MAURICIO SAVARESE
Associated Press

SAO PAULO (AP) — A U.N. human rights panel of experts has given a moral victory to former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. It found he was illegally barred from running for the country’s top job in 2018 due to judicial bias. The 15-2 decision announced Thursday by the Human Rights Committee comes as the 76-year-old da Silva is preparing another run for the presidency in October. The leftist leader had been the front-runner in the polls to return to the job he held between 2003 and 2010 when a federal judge found him guilty of corruption and money laundering. The case was thrown out last year.