Presiding Justice Says There Would Be No Fight Against Corruption if Not for STF

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The president of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), Dias Toffoli, delivered a speech on Wednesday in defense of the Court. In recent days, the court has been criticized for having approved a theory that challenges Lava-Jato’s convictions. Toffoli said that if it were not for the Supreme Court, there would be no fight against corruption in Brazil.

“If there is a fight against corruption, so required in this country, it is because of the STF that, together with the National Congress and the Executive, drafted republican pacts in 2004 and 2009. Every law that enhanced the punishment for money laundering, the laws that allowed for the pleas-bargains, the laws of transparency were provided for in these pacts,” Toffoli said. “It is a fallacy to say the opposite, that this Court is acting in the opposite direction. It is intellectual disloyalty”.

The president of the STF continued to defend the role of the Supreme Court in the fight against corruption:

“This Court advocates the fight against corruption, upholds the decisions taken within legal norms, yet rejects the abuses and excesses and the attempts to establish parallel powers and parallel institutions. I repeat: if it were not for this STF, there would be no fight against corruption in Brazil”.

The Supreme Court yesterday resumed its judgment on the understanding that defendants who have been denounced by whistleblowers should submit final briefs only after the those of their co-defendants.

Justice Marco Aurélio Mello, who was not present at last week’s session, voted yesterday in dissent, making the decision a seven votes to four. He argued that whistleblowers and defendants could file their briefs at the same time, as provided in the statute.

“The Supreme Court does not legislate. Society applauds Lava Jato. The STF comes to say that it was not so. That the success was contaminated. That there was no differentiated handling of the accused in the final briefs. The reversal does not instill confidence. On the contrary, it generates discredit. Since the story is merciless, the notion of a tendency for the unclear in terms of criminal responsibility, in the famous ‘Brazilian way’, and what is worse, for the benefit not of the less fortunate, but of the so-called sharks of the Republic, starts to transpire. There is no salvation outside the law. There is a price for living in a state of law and this modest price is respect,” said Marco Aurélio.

As GLOBO had anticipated, Toffoli submitted a suggestion to “modulate” last week’s decision that could affect Lava-Jato’s convictions: there would be two prerequisites for defendants to have their convictions annulled. The first is that they had appealed the final brief filing order in the lower court. The second, that the defense proves that it was prejudiced by the joint filing period. Ths would create a filter and nullify only part of the Lava Jato’s convictions, without compromising the entire operation.

These two parameters were used in the STF Second Panel decision last month that overturned the conviction imposed on former Petrobras president Aldemir Bendine. In plenary session, justices also relied on this theory to benefit the former manager of Petrobras Márcio de Almeida Ferreira last week.

Source: O Globo