Brazilian Bar (OAB) Recommends Suspension of Officials Named by The Intercept

By Arkady Petrov

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Federal Council and the College of Sectional Presidents of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) unanimously approved on Monday, June 10th, a recommendation for the removal from public office of all those involved in the case of the dialogues between members of Lava Jato, published on the site The Intercept.

The approved public statement does not nominally cite Justice Minister Sérgio Moro or Prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol, whose conversations have been made public.

In the memo, the OAB expresses “concern” and “perplexity” both at the content of the dialogues and at the possibility that the authorities have been “hacked”. For the entity, these facts bring “serious risk to institutional security” and “threaten the foundations of the democratic rule of law”.

The OAB also decided that “it will not shy away from taking all appropriate measures to ensure the clarification of the facts, particularly before the Federal Supreme Court (STF), the Federal Prosecution Office (PGR), the National Council of the Federal Public Prosecutor (CNMP), and the National Council of Justice (CNJ)” to ensure that the facts are clarified.

“The gravity of the facts cannot be disregarded, requiring a full, unbiased and impartial investigation, to the extent that they involve members of the Federal Public Prosecutor, a former member of the Judiciary and the possible relationship of promiscuity in conducting criminal proceedings within the scope of Operation Lava Jato. This framework recommends that those involved remove themselves from the public posts they hold, particular,lyto ensure that investigations may be conducted without suspicion,” reads the note.