Justice decides to remove Gabriela Hardt from Lava Jato and appoints two new judges

The Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region (TRF-4) decided, this Monday morning (19), to remove Judge Gabriela Hardt from the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba, where the processes related to Operation Lava Jato are processed, and to appoint two new judges to the section.

Hardt’s request for removal from a section in Florianópolis was denied last week, but the TRF-4 decided to accept the request and assigned it to the 3rd Appellate Panel in Paraná. In her place, in Curitiba, the court appointed federal judge Fábio Nunes de Martino, from the 1st Federal Court of Ponta Grossa (PR), and substitute federal judge Murilo Scremin Czezacki, from the 2nd Federal Court of Cascavel, who are now responsible for by the processes.

The decision to accept Hardt’s removal request and Martino and Czezacki’s designation comes weeks after the National Council of Justice (CNJ) determines an inspection procedure at the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba and at the TRF-4 magistrates’ offices where they run. the proceedings resulting from Lava Jato. The measure was determined after “disciplinary complaints filed with the board”.

The inspection in the two Courts was mainly motivated by the removal of Judge Eduardo Fernando Appio from conducting the proceedings on suspicion of violating legal norms. A week earlier, the magistrate was removed by the regional court itself on suspicion of having intimidated the son of judge Marcelo Malucelli through a telephone call in April, in which he would have used confidential tax data to threaten or embarrass the victim. João Eduardo Barreto Malucelli, son of the judge, is a partner of Sérgio and Rosângela Moro (União Brasil de SP and PR, respectively) at the law firm Wolff Moro, in Curitiba.

Appio took over the Lava Jato cases in February under suspicion of society, for having, in the past, criticized the work carried out during the operation and for having used the acronym “LUL22” as identification in the Justice system of Paraná, the E-proc, among others. 2021 and the beginning of this year.