Lava Jato judge acquits defendant and rejects suspicion – 05/22/2023 – Power

Federal judge Eduardo Appio, at the head of the proceedings arising from Operation Lava Jato in Curitiba, rejected the suspicion leveled against him by the Attorney General Carolina Bonfadini de Sá, in a decision signed on Saturday (20). Hours earlier, he also signed his first sentence under Lava Jato and acquitted businessman Raul Schmidt Felippe Junior.

The judge states that the MPF (Federal Public Ministry) had access to the accused’s bank information without prior judicial authorization.

On Saturday night, Appio rejected the exception of suspicion without judgment on the merits and criticized the prosecutor of the MPF (Federal Public Ministry) from Paraná. “The frivolous narrative exposed by the Public Prosecutor is limited to making conjectures, of an absolutely generic nature, devoid of any evidence,” he wrote.

In March, shortly after Appio took over the work, the prosecutor pointed out the suspicion, recalling the magistrate’s performance on social networks. It showed the judge’s activities on Twitter, such as followed profiles and likes in publications by PT politicians. She also quoted a report that stated that the magistrate kept the signature “LUL22” in the procedural system of Federal Justice until this year.

According to the prosecutor, a judge who “clearly disseminates his political and ideological opinion through social networks, delegitimizes the procedural conduct carried out by another magistrate [senador Sergio Moro, ex-juiz federal da Lava Jato]questions the performance of the Federal Public Ministry, reports Operation Lava Jato as ‘VazaJato’ and supports the hashtag ‘Defendam Lula’, it is not invested with the necessary attribute of impartiality”.

The report contacted the MPF advisor this Monday (22) and is awaiting a response.

In the same piece where she pointed out suspicion, the prosecutor asked that, if there was a negative Appio, the matter be sent to the judges of second instance, at the Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region. Appio does not address this in his dispatch.

In Saturday’s decision, Appio also states that the request for suspicion made by the prosecutor violates “all the guarantees of functional independence of the judges” and also cites the case of his father, the former federal deputy of the PP-RS Francisco Appio, who died last year, and was even mentioned by one of the Odebrecht whistleblowers, in statements taken by the PGR (Attorney General of the Republic), in Brasília.

“The Public Prosecutor did not even comply with the most common rules of civility and civility among federal authorities, insofar as she tried – amazingly – to defame the memory of my father, who had recently died on November 1, 2022 (a great man of unblemished conduct ), all in order to pressure this Federal Court”, wrote the judge.

FIRST JUDGMENT ABSOLVES DEFENDANT

On Saturday afternoon, Appio signed his first sentence under Operation Lava Jato, acquitting businessman Raul Schmidt Felippe Junior, accused by the MPF of having committed the crimes of money laundering and passive corruption.

According to the MPF, the defendant would have paid undue benefits to Petrobras employees to favor the hiring of Vantage Drilling Corporation for the chartering of the drillship Titanium Explorer by Petrobras, in January 2009.

The defendant’s defense, however, said that there was no prior judicial decision authorizing the removal of the accused’s bank secrecy in the Principality of Monaco, and Appio accepted the point.

“International cooperation is also ruled by specific legislation, which was not observed in this case (…), perhaps in the eagerness to obtain ‘Jet’ evidence, in the shortest possible time, but whose illegality in the production came to compromise, in a way irreversibly, the very validity and usefulness of evidence”, writes Appio.

In the sentence, the judge also recalls the decision of the president of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), Minister Rosa Weber, suspending an investigation that was being processed by the STJ (Superior Court of Justice) and involved the content of the dialogues of the Lava Jato prosecutors on Telegram, obtained by hackers.

Appio claims that the minister’s decision was taken on the grounds that “illegal evidence is inadmissible” and that such constitutional guarantees are valid “for the attorneys of the Republic of Curitiba” and also for the accused.