Brazil Supreme Court Justice overturns Lula’s convictions on jurisdictional grounds

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Federal Supreme Court (STF) Justice Edson Fachin, on Monday, March 8th, overturned all four convictions of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, arising from Operation Lava-Jato – among them the triplex apartment in Guarujá. As a result, the ex-president is now eligible to run in the 2022 elections.

In a note, Fachin said he considers that the court of Curitiba, where the proceedings against the ex-president were conducted, has no jurisdiction to judge the case.

The note issued by the office of Justice Edson Fachin:

“Justice Edson Fachin, through an individual ruling, has determined that the 13th Federal Court of the Judicial Subsection of Curitiba was not the competent court to prosecute and judge Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The ruling was taken in a habeas corpus petition lodged by the defense on November 3rd, 2020 and applies to the following cases:

Criminal Actions no. 5046512-94.2016.4.04.7000/PR (Guarujá Triplex); 5021365- 2.2017.4.04.7000/PR (Atibaia Farm); 5063130-17.2018.4.04.7000/PR (Lula Institute’s headquarters); and 5044305-83.2020.4.04.7000/PR (donations to Lula Institute).

With the decision, all decisions handed down by the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba have been declared null and void and it has been determined that the respective case files be sent to the Federal District’ Judiciary Section.

Although the jurisdiction issue had already been indirectly raised, this is the first time that the argument meets procedural conditions to be examined, given the further study and clarification of the matter by the Federal Supreme Court.

Justice Edson Fachin affirms that, after the INQ 4.130-QO case by the full Federal Supreme Court , case law precedents have limited the scope of the 13th Federal Circuit’s jurisdiction.

At first, all cases that were not related to embezzlement committed against PETROBRAS were excluded. Then, investigations that arose from Odebrecht, OAS and J&F’s plea bargains were distributed across the country. Finally, more recently, the cases involving Transpetro (a subsidiary of Petrobras itself) were also removed from the jurisdiction of the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba.

In criminal lawsuits involving Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, as well as in other cases judged by the full court and its Second Panel, it was observed that the alleged illicit acts directly involved not only Petrobras, but also other Public Administration bodies.

According to Justice Fachin, specifically in relation to other political officials whom the Prosecutor’s Office accused of adopting a modus operandi similar to that which would have been adopted by the ex-president, the Second Panel has transferred the case to the Federal District criminal court.

Albeit dissenting several times on this matter, the Justice, taking into consideration the development of the matter in the Second Panel in similar cases, determines that the same precedents should be applied to the ex-president of the Republic, recognizing that the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba was not the appropriate judge for these cases.”