Supreme Court Justice Intends to Resume Trial Involving Sérgio Moro

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – After having two sentences overturned by the Federal Supreme Court (STF), the former judge and current justice minister, Sérgio Moro, runs the risk of a new defeat at the conclusion of the habeas corpus trial in which the defense of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is accusing him of bias in his conviction for the triplex of Guarujá in São Paulo State.

Justice Gilmar Mendes intends to take the case to the Second Panel by November.

Members of the Court say the best option is for the trial to be resumed only when Justice Celso de Mello’s vote has “matured”, since the result should be defined by the oldest member – who has signaled on the sidelines the chance to be aligned with Mendes and Ricardo Lewandowski in favor of the leftist’s request to overturn the conviction. Justices Edson Fachin and Cármen Lúcia have already voted against the former president’s request.

Should the request be accepted, it would be the third time that the Supreme Court would overturn Moro’s sentence this semester alone. In August, by three votes to one, the Second Panel overturned the conviction that had been handed down to former president of Petrobras and Banco do Brasil Aldemir Bendine, under the allegation that the businessman had been forced to deliver his defense at the same time that Odebrecht whistleblowers presented their final claims, thus being unable to disprove the allegations.

At the time, Justice Cármen Lúcia did not support Lava Jato’s rapporteur, Edson Fachin, for the first time in the trial of crucial cases of the Second Panel, according to a survey by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo. Cármen’s position was construed as a sign that even magistrates more favorable to Lava Jato could oppose what some are calling the abuses of judges and prosecutors.

Earlier this month, the STF plenary also overturned the conviction of former Petrobras manager Marcio de Almeida Ferreira in a case similar to that of Bendine. The thesis that could pave the way for the annulment of more convictions, such as Lula’s in the case of the Atibaia ranch, has yet to be determined.

Source: O Estado de S. Paulo

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