Meeting with family at barracks after the funeral 'would be a disgrace', says Lula

247 Lula's defense lawyer, Manoel Caetano Ferreira, stated that the former president considered it "a disgrace" to meet with his family "in a military barracks" after Vavá – his brother Genival Inácio da Silva – had already been buried. The decision by Dias Toffoli, president of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), which was strongly criticized by numerous sectors of Brazilian society, especially legal ones, was issued at the same time that Vavá's funeral was drawing to a close. 

A report by O Estado de S.Paulo It highlights that "in his decision, the minister granted the Workers' Party member the 'right to meet exclusively with his family today at a Military Unit in the Region, including the possibility of the body being taken' to a 'military unit, at the family's discretion'." The lawyer, however, points out that the 'decision was pointless, issued when the body was already being lowered into the grave, the burial was already underway.' 'Therefore, the decision simply cannot be enforced.'"

In the lawyer's words, "the former president would not agree to meet with his family in a military barracks; he made that clear. It would be a disgrace, a disrespect to his family, for him to meet with them at a time like this in a military barracks."

The article further adds that "federal and state prisons issued approximately 12,8 authorizations per month similar to the request made by the defense of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to attend his brother's funeral. The data, from the Penitentiary Department (Depen) of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, refers to the period between the beginning of 2014 and June 2016, the most recent published by the government. The reports do not indicate how many such requests are denied."