Holder of the Lava Jato Court is among those on leave due to alleged illegalities

The head judge of the 13th Federal Court of Justice in Curitiba (PR), Danilo Pereira Junioris among the magistrates temporarily removed by the decision of the national inspector of Justice, Luís Felipe Salomão, on Monday (15), due to alleged irregularities committed by judges and judges in the Lava Jato processes.

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Replacing Sergio Moro (União-PR) in the court considered the cradle of the operation, the judge Gabriela Hardt was removed from her duties at the 23rd Federal Court of Justice of Paraná after the monocratic decision of the magistrate of the National Council of Justice (CNJ), who considered illegal the judge’s decision in the approval of an agreement between the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) and Petrobras with the return of R$2.5 billion to public coffers.

Pereira Júnior – who took over the Lava Jato Court at the end of last year to judge the remaining cases of the operation – acted as a substitute federal judge in the 8th Panel of the Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region (TRF-4) in the process that annulled the decisions about the operation taken by the former judge Eduardo Appio. In addition to Pereira Júnior, the judges Carlos Eduardo Thompson Flores Lenz It is Loraci Flores de Lima They were removed from their duties in a precautionary manner by the monocratic decision, which will be analyzed this Tuesday (16) in the CNJ plenary.

According to the national justice inspector, the members of the 8th Panel of the TRF-4 at the time decided to suspect Appio in cases that were suspended by decision of the former minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Ricardo Lewandowski, using as a basis “declared evidence invalid” by Court Minister Dias Toffoli, which caused “a special burden to the investigated defendants”.

“The declaration of nullity of all decisions handed down by federal judge Eduardo Appio, in all processes of the so-called Lava Jato operation (including those in which there were no Exceptions of Suspicion filed), resulted, concretely, for example, in the reestablishment of the validity of warrants of arrest against Raul Schmidt Felippe Júnior and against Tacla Duran, previously revoked by decisions of the magistrate declared suspect”, points out Salomão.

In May 2023, in the first sentence related to Lava Jato, Appio acquitted the defendant Felippe Júnior, denounced by the MPF for the crimes of passive corruption and money laundering. He would have acted on behalf of public agents, intermediating the chartering of the Titanium Explorer drillship, from the company Vantage Drilling, by Petrobras. Former Odebrecht lawyer, Rodrigo Tacla Duran tried to accuse Moro and Deltan Dallagnol (Novo-PR) of extortion during the operation.

For Salomão, the collegial decision of the 8th Panel resulted in the annulment of the sentence handed down by Appio in the case of Felippe Júnior, “in absolute disregard for due legal process, in solemn disregard for fundamental rights that would be achieved with the implementation of the judicial command”. According to him, the decree of nullity of all Appio’s acts with effects extended to other “27 exceptions handled against the same magistrate” failed to comply with the Supreme Court’s suspension order and resumed the validity of arrest warrants against Felippe Júnior and Tacla Duran.

“In the direction of this understanding, it should be noted that the judge must obey the constitutional order, especially in concrete hypotheses in which the STF has already expressed its opinion, as occurred in the hypothesis under analysis. The judge is prohibited from deciding based on exclusively personal criteria, interpreting and applying the legal norm based on his or her purely ideological or moral training, personal beliefs or political option”, highlights the national inspector of Justice.

Current judge of Lava Jato, Pereira Júnior claimed in the disciplinary process that he was a member of the 7th Panel of the TRF of the 4th Region, summoned to the 8th Panel to form a quorum “with action restricted to the process”, and it cannot be demanded his “full and broad knowledge of any related decisions, even if handed down by the distinguished Superior Courts”, an argument refuted by Minister Salomão.

“The call for the composition of a quorum in a trial session is not justified by the need for the objective presence of the judge, but by qualitative participation in the resolution of the dispute. In this sense, in order for the judge’s qualitative participation to take place, it is assumed that he or she has reasonable knowledge of the process and is capable of developing logical-deductive reasoning about the dispute. At this point, therefore, when deciding to follow the rapporteur’s vote, it is assumed that his decision was taken cautiously and consciously”, states the national inspector.

Eduardo Appio was removed from the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba in May 2023 on suspicion of threats directed at the son of the TRF-4 judge, Marcelo Malucelli. According to the complaint, the federal judge called the magistrate’s son after a decision that reinstated the prison of lawyer Tacla Duran. Malucelli’s son is a partner and son-in-law of former judge Sergio Moro.

Appio did not return to command of the court responsible for Lava Jato processes. In October, during the mediation hearing of the disciplinary process opened by minister Luis Salomão, he admitted to having maintained “improper conduct” and signed an agreement with the National Justice Inspectorate. After that, Appio asked to be removed from the position of full judge for the 18th Civil Court of the Federal Court, accepted by the Administrative Council of the TRF-4 in the same session that defined the name of Danilo Pereira Junior as the new judge of the 13th Court.