Expert who questions Appio’s voice in a call is a columnist for a pro-Lula website

The author of the opinion presented this Monday (5th) by the defense of Eduardo Appio, who pointed out that it was impossible to confirm that the voice recorded in the alleged telephone call made to João Eduardo Malucelli, on April 13th, was from the magistrate, is a columnist for the news site Brazil 247. The vehicle has historically maintained an editorial position in alignment with the Workers’ Party (PT) and contrary to high-ranking political opponents of the acronym.

In the opinion, prepared by linguistics professor Pablo Arantes, the author contradicts the expertise made by the Federal Police (PF), which had concluded that the voice “strongly corroborates” with Appio’s.

“Based on the technical analyzes carried out and on my professional experience as a doctor in the field of linguistics, specialist in the field of phonetics, researcher in the field of forensic phonetics and author of several articles and other publications in the area, I affirm that level 0 would be adequate for the case, not being able to corroborate or contradict the hypothesis of the same origin for the voices”, says Pablo Arantes.

The opinion was used by Appio’s lawyers to ask for the magistrate’s immediate return to his duties at the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba. The magistrate, who judged cases of the Lava Jato operation, but with a very critical position towards the former occupant of the position, Sergio Moro, was removed from his duties on May 22 by decision of the Council of the Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region (TRF-4 ).

The Court’s decision responded to a request by federal judge Marcelo Malucelli, father of João Eduardo Malucelli, who stated that his son had received a threatening telephone call from Appio. The TRF-4 council considered that there were indications that the judge had made the phone call, which was recorded by the judge’s son.

In the document that determined the removal of the magistrate, the TRF-4 pointed out that Appio had consulted, in a process in the electronic system of Justice, the telephone number of the judge’s son on April 13, the same date on which João Malucelli received the telephone call in question. The call is classified by the Court as a possible attempt at intimidation, threat or embarrassment based on confidential data to which he had access.

Author of opinion has already publicly manifested against Moro

In one of the texts published in the Brazil 247, in 2019, the author of the opinion exposed his critical position in relation to Sergio Moro, saying that he maintains “absolute repudiation of the way he exercises the positions he occupies”. Other texts by the professor deal with Lula and the president’s political opponents.

After the presentation of the opinion to the Justice, the website for which Arantes writes published an untrue news on the subject, whose title is “Voice of the recording that Moro delivered to the TRF-4 is not of Eduardo Appio”. It is noteworthy that the professor of linguistics did not mention such a conclusion in the opinion, but pointed out as “inconclusive” the hypothesis that the voice was that of the magistrate.

Even so, a series of influencers and journalists aligned with the Lula government began to publicize the false claim that “a report would have denied that the voice of the telephone call was Appio”.

Even in Brasilia, the false news had repercussions, through the PT federal deputy Rui Falcão (SP), president of the Chamber’s Constitution, Justice and Citizenship Commission (CCJ). On the social networks, he pronounced as follows: “The technical opinion reveals that the voice of the recording that the former partial judge delivered to TRF4 is NOT that of Judge Eduardo Appio”.

Appio used the acronym LUL22 in the justice system: “protest against Lula’s arrest”

The magistrate, who according to the TRF-4 may have committed at least four infractions, from impersonating a third person to using data from the restricted federal justice system to embarrass or threaten a federal judge, is a great critic of Lava Jato and has already declared that Lula’s arrest caused “irreparable damage”.

On May 22, the judge confessed that he used the initials “LUL22” as an electronic identification in the Federal Justice system of Paraná, the E-proc, between 2021 and the beginning of 2022. “A few years ago, when President Lula was still I was in prison, my acronym for accessing the Federal Justice system was ‘LUL22’. At the time, I worked with social security matters and this was an isolated, individual protest against a prison that I considered illegal. And then, in fact, the Federal Supreme Court considered the arrest illegal”, said Appio in an interview with GloboNews.

In February, when the use of LUL22 was revealed by the newspaper
The globehe had said that it was a “factoid” and that he would not comment on the case for cybersecurity reasons.

On the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) accountability website, there is also a donation of R$13 that the judge would have made to Lula’s campaign in the 2022 election and another, of R$40, to the then candidate for state deputy Ana Júlia Pires Ribeiro, also from the Workers’ Party.

Other side

The report contacted Pablo Arantes and made room for his position, which will be added to this article if sent.