Lula Calls on STF to Suspend Appellate Court Hearing on Atibaia Country Home

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The defense of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva filed a plea of habeas corpus at the Supreme Court (STF) requesting an injunction to prevent the Federal 4th Region Appellate Court (TRF-4) from judging an issue scheduled for this Wednesday, October 30th.

In this action, the 8th Panel should decide whether or not the action relating to ownership of the Atibaia country home in São Paulo State should return to the stage of final briefs and have the sentence of the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba annulled – Lula has been sentenced to 12 years and 11 months imprisonment by judge Gabriela Hardt in this lawsuit.

In the writ of habeas corpus, defense counsel claims that “only one of the matters contained in the appeal lodged in favor of [Lula], which addresses the invalidity of the proceeding for not having followed a sequential order for the submission of final briefs, despite other matters in the same appeal that petition the nullity of the proceedings to a greater extent, and cause procedural turmoil, pending the motions for clarification in the case records on October 14th, and, once again, manifestly breach the chronological order of appeals in progress before that Regional Court”.

Among the issues of substance raised by the defense, in addition to the reversal of the sequential order for submission of final briefs, are: “the judgment’s nullity for partiality of the judges”; “the paratiality of the prosecutors who proposed the motion”; “the violation of the presumption of innocence”; “the lack of jurisdiction of the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba/Paraná”; and “multiple restrictions of [the right to a full] defense”.

According to the lawyers, there would be a violation of due process by considering only one part of the appeal.

“We work with the notion, with all due respect, that the judge may choose the argument that he or she will judge. There is a clear attempt to rectify the full invalidity of the proceeding by expecting partial invalidity”.

The petition points out that the judgment on the order of final briefs should not take place this Wednesday, October 30th, since there is still pending at the court a decision on the motions for clarification lodged by the defense on October 14th, with respect to the petition for sharing the messages exchanged in devices through Telegram, between Lava Jato prosecutors and the former judge Sérgio Moro, which were obtained during Operation Spoofing. “The judgment of the ‘issue of order’ proposed by the Rapporteur of the appeal would lead to a clear reversal of the proceeding.”

Lula has been imprisoned since April 7th, 2018 in a special cell in the Federal Police in Curitiba to serve time after conviction in the Guarujá triplex lawsuit.

Last Friday, October 25th, appellate court judge João Pedro Gebran Neto, rapporteur of Operation Lava Jato in the TRF-4, had denied a motion by defense counsel claiming that the trial could not be divided into sections, by reviewing a preliminary proceeding separately from the substance of the criminal appeal.

According to judge Gebran, the defense could challenge this at the trial session itself, in oral arguments.

Source: Estadão Conteúdo