ANPR appeals decision against Odebrecht agreement – 09/11/2023 – Power

The ANPR (National Association of Public Prosecutors) appealed, this Monday (11), the decision of the minister of the STF (Supreme Federal Court) Dias Toffoli who declared null the evidence arising from Odebrecht’s leniency agreement within the scope of Operation Lava Jet.

The association argues that the action in which Toffoli gave the decision — a request from today’s court minister Cristiano Zanin, at the time still a lawyer for President Lula (PT), regarding one of the Lava Jato actions — is restricted to that case against the PT member, archived in February.

In the regulatory appeal to Toffoli’s decision, the association argues that the magistrate could not have annulled the evidence of the Odebrecht agreement, because, in the ANPR’s view, the action would have ended in February — when Lula’s case was declared extinct.

“The Association highlights that the procedural effects in relation to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva are not under discussion, which are already covered by res judicata and the termination of the criminal action”, says a note from ANPR.

The case must be judged in the Second Panel of the Supreme Court, which includes, in addition to Toffoli, ministers Gilmar Mendes, Kassio Nunes Marques, André Mendonça and Edson Fachin.

If accepted, the request would resume several actions whose evidence was recently annulled by Toffoli, such as those of the former director of Dersa (state-owned highway company in São Paulo) Paulo Vieira de Souza, known as Paulo Preto, and the former governor of Paraná Beto Richa (PSDB ).

On September 6, Toffoli released a decision with nods to Lula, with whom he had grown tired in recent years. The STF minister said at the time that the PT member’s arrest was a set-up and the “real snake’s egg of attacks on democracy”.

According to Toffoli, Lula’s arrest “could even be called one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in the country’s history”, but “it was much worse”.

The member of the STF wrote about Lula in a decision in which he determined that the evidence arising from Odebrecht’s leniency agreements and also from the Drousys and MyWebDay systems — respectively internal communication and accounting and control of payments of undue advantages — are useless in any context or degree of jurisdiction.

Lula’s representative in the action is Valeska Zanin Martins, Zanin’s wife.

After Toffoli’s decision, the AGU (Attorney General’s Office), the body that provides legal representation to the government, announced that it will create a task force to investigate “deviations by public agents and promote the repair of damages” caused by decisions of the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba.

The announcement cites both decisions against Lula and by “members of the Federal Public Ministry within the scope of the so-called ‘Operation Lava Jato'”. The AGU minister, Jorge Messias, is one of those considered to join the Supreme Court with Rosa Weber’s retirement, which should take place by October.