2023-09-14 04:48:00
The decision of a judge of the Supreme Court of Brazil to nullify the evidence against Lula da Silva obtained by the Operation Lava Jato, the international corruption mega-case that began in 2014, shook Brazilian society. It also reopened the debate on distrust towards institutions and the lawfarethe “judicial war” to ban political leaders of which Lula claims to be a victim.
Alleging procedural reasons, the judge of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) Jose Antonio Dias Toffoli described as “illegal and unorthodox” the evidence with which the former federal judge, Sergio Moro, convicted the leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) of corruption. A fact that, despite criticism from human rights organizations for the validity of the process, inflamed the population and caused a political schism in the run-up to the 2018 presidential elections.
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Aware of the high political impact of the measure, the courtier, who oscillated for and against the trial against Lula da Silva in recent years, ruled that it was “one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in the history of Brazil”. He also stated that behind his disqualification from holding public office and his swift imprisonment (a record for the times of Brazilian justice) there was “a power project of certain public agents” for come to power by “legal means”.
With this incendiary statement, Dias Toffoli finished exonerating In the first instance Lula, 77, of the process that stained his career but did not prevent his political resurrection when he assumed his third presidency on January 1, 2023, in the midst of a context of maximum tension. But it also made evident the change in position of the supreme judge and the political-judicial frameworks of the Latin American giant.
In 2021, the Brazilian Supreme Court annulled all cases against President Lula da Silva, who regained his political rights.
Dias Toffoli’s discursive turn
Dias Toffoli had a close bond with President Lula da Silva since he was PT representative in the first three presidential campaigns (between 1998 and 2006). However, after Lula appointed him to the Supreme Court in 2009, he distanced himself.
In the midst of the Lava Jato scandal, the supreme judge supported his imprisonment (despite having been a critic of the mechanisms of Moro and the prosecutors), denied him the possibility of communicating by telephone from prison and leaving temporarily to attend the funerals of his relatives, something that was not common with other prisoners. And till He approached Jair Bolsonarothe brand new president who had skillfully capitalized on social anger despite the fact that his party was also marred by acts of corruption.
After the annulment of the case against Lula da Silva in 2021 by the Supreme Court and Lula’s return to the political scene, Dias Toffoli sniffed what was coming and changed his position radically. “After the last presidential elections in October 2022, Toffoli lost ground. And willing to close the gap that separated him from Luladecided to annul on September 6 the statements of Marcelo Odebrecht, in its award-winning denunciation“said Eleonora Gosman, a correspondent in Brazil who closely follows the trial against the Brazilian president. “It was a request for forgiveness“he added.
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The domino effect on Lava Jato
The investigation known as Lava Jato brought to light bribes by Brazilian construction companies, including Odebrecht, to officials from several Latin American countries, including Argentinato obtain public works contracts between 2005 and 2014.
The case was promoted by Bolsonaro’s former federal judge and Minister of Justice, Sergio Moro, who resigned from his position as a magistrate after a hacker revealed messages containing a conspiracy with prosecutors to build a case against Lula da Silva that would allow him to be imprisoned. To which he added that, after the release of the then former president, the Supreme Court declared it “partial“.
A year later, Supreme Judge Dias Toffoli considered that evidence from executive confessions made within the framework of a collaboration agreement signed in 2017 by Odebrecht, known as “awarded revelations” (in Argentina something similar to the figure of the repentant), its “unusable” not only in the case of President Lula but by “any jurisdiction.”
Judge José Antonio Dias Toffoli has a long-standing relationship with Lula da Silva.
Dias Toffoli, meanwhile, did not dismiss the testimonies but the “irregularities” in the way they were obtained. “He judged that the evidence collected for that denunciation had been obtained through psychological “torture” and admitted that Lula’s imprisonment, in April 2021, had constituted ‘a serious mistake‘. “This is how the last chapter of the trial known as Lava Jato was closed,” Gosman concluded.
The scenario that the magistrate opened raised a question: what will happen to the other causes what depend on these tests based on the statements from 77 executives of the construction giants who testified to reduce their sentences, which in some cases were tried by courts in the United States and Switzerland.
This includes payment of 2.6 billion dollars fine by Odebrecht, according to official information from the North American government. Odebrecht was accused by the prosecution of participating, along with other companies, politicians and intermediaries, in a network of bribery and rigged contracts with the state-owned Petrobras.
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“What everyone in Brazil is wondering is whether there will be a domino effect of the entire process collapsing, including other companies. This ends up impacting everything, the political parties that received money. It is a seismic movement because it puts in doubts the entire process,” said a consultant expert in Brazilian politics when asked by this media. “Regardless of whether it is a political decision or not, the impact is on the legal security of Brazil. It is not clear what justice wants“he added.
Dias Toffoli, meanwhile, ended up giving in to the request for annulment of the case raised by Lula da Silva’s defense, which alleged that it was an armed case (lawfare) to remove the most influential politician in contemporary South American history from electoral competition. On his side, he did not stand still: nine months after assuming the presidency, he appointed – with the approval of the Senate – Cristiano Zanin as a new member of the Court, his defense lawyer in the Lava Jato.
Thus, the institutional knot in Brazil and the murky links between power groups, politics and justice that lose credit in the face of a society marked by fire by corruption scandals were revealed once again.
CD / ED
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