Deltan questions the neutrality of the new Lava Jato judge – 02/17/2023 – Power

Federal deputy Deltan Dallagnol (Podemos-PR) reacted with strong criticism this Friday (17) to the statements of the new judge responsible for the remaining cases of Operation Lava Jato in Curitiba.

For Deltan, who coordinated the task force of the Federal Public Ministry in the operation until 2020, Judge Eduardo Appio does not have the neutrality he preaches to judge cases involving corruption at Petrobras and would have already shown contempt for members of the investigation and for the former judge. Sergio Moro, now a senator for União Brasil-PR.

In an interview with SheetAppio stated that, among his objectives at the head of the 13th Court of Curitiba, is to rescue the credibility of the Federal Justice and ensure “ideological or party-political” neutrality in the trials, removing what he classifies as “judicial populism”.

The magistrate took over on the last day 7 the post that was Sergio Moro until 2018.

For Appio, Lava Jato brought good things, such as the return of money to public coffers, but it also ran over the Constitution, by meeting society’s desire to punish corrupt people.

In the report and on social networks, Deltan questioned Appio’s impartiality by citing a donation of R$ 13 that appears in the name of the judge and that was made to the campaign of current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) last year.

In the records of the Electoral Justice, there are two payments on behalf of the judge – the other is R$ 40 for a candidate for PT state deputy in Paraná.

“He claims to seek neutrality, but the alleged neutrality with words is belied by facts,” Deltan told the Sheet.

The former prosecutor also stated that the magistrate’s father, former PP-RS federal deputy Francisco Appio, who died in October, was even mentioned by one of the Odebrecht whistleblowers, in depositions taken by the Attorney General’s Office ( PGR), in Brasilia.

Deltan shared a report from 2017 on a social network that addressed the supposed nickname of the politician in the contractor’s electoral transfers, “Abelha”.

Until this Friday night, the PGR did not say whether the mention of Francisco Appio’s name generated any investigative procedure.

wanted by Sheet on Friday, the judge declined to comment on the cases.

“How does a judge who is listed as a donor to Lula’s campaign manage to convince anyone of his impartiality in Lava Jato?”, Deltan told Sheet.

Deltan resigned from the Federal Public Ministry in Paraná in 2021 and, before migrating to politics, he became a spokesman for the operation.

“He [juiz federal Eduardo Appio] He is someone who participated in a clearly ideological, left-wing program, allying himself with people who attacked Lava Jato in recent years,” said Deltan, referring to Appio’s participation in a program of debates on legal issues, on channel no. YouTube, by journalist Luís Nassif Lava Jato was one of the main targets of the participants.

Appio presents himself as a guarantor judge and is openly critical of Lava Jato’s methods when dealing with the contexts of arrests and accusations promoted by the operation.

Senator Sergio Moro, who left the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba in 2018 to be minister of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), was also contacted by the Sheet to comment on Appio’s statements, but declined to comment.

Deltan also argues that saying that “Lava Jato is not dead”, as Appio declared to Sheet“reveals a naivety or an absolute lack of understanding of the world”.

“There were a series of setbacks in the fight against corruption that prevent you from achieving concrete results in investigations and prosecutions against crimes committed by the powerful,” said the deputy.

For the former prosecutor, this is just a “semantic issue”, since, in his view, some changes in recent years have prevented the effective punishment of corrupt people, such as sending cases to the Electoral Court based on a decision by the STF (Supreme Federal Court) in 2019.

“It’s not her institutional profile [Justiça Eleitoral] act in criminal cases, even more of high complexity. So, the system now prevents effective work against grand corruption,” said Deltan.

The deputy also includes in the list of setbacks for Lava Jato the impossibility of arrest after conviction in second instance. For the former prosecutor, this “disincentives award-winning collaborations and leniency agreements”.

“If you understand Lava Jato’s work as a job of putting stamps on processes and making decisions that will never be effective, then, of course, the bureaucratic procedures will move forward and then Lava Jato is not dead. But it is a semantic issue. What is Lava Jato? I see it as an effective action to combat corruption that was capable and was capable of putting criminals in jail, regardless of their power, and recovering millions for the public coffers”, says Deltan.

In addition to participating in legal debates, Appio has already expressed criticism of Lava Jato in articles in previous years.

In 2021, shortly after the STF annulled Lula’s convictions, the new magistrate of the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba published a text proposing “ten measures to ensure greater transparency” in the performance of judicial authorities and members of the Public Ministry.

Among Appio’s ten proposals was the electoral quarantine, to prohibit “judges, prosecutors and police from assuming public office in direct or indirect administration”.