Lava Jato: Judge annuls Cabral’s sentence issued by Moro – 05/02/2023 – Power

Judge Eduardo Appio, the new person in charge of Operation Lava Jato processes in Curitiba, annulled the conviction imposed in 2017 against former governor Sérgio Cabral by former judge Sérgio Moro.

The magistrate agreed with Cabral’s defense request to consider partial the performance of Moro, currently a senator for União Brasil-PR, based on messages exchanged between the former magistrate and former prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol, currently a federal deputy.

“The dialogues attached to the present case file by the defense of Sérgio Cabral demonstrate, in an absolutely safe and irrefutable way, that there is more than enough evidence of complicity between these two agents of the Brazilian State, to the detriment of an accused in a criminal proceeding”, wrote the magistrate in decision this Tuesday (2).

Cabral was sentenced to 14 years and 2 months in prison in this process, a sentence upheld by the TRF-4 (Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region).

Despite the recent judicial victories that culminated in the ex-governor’s freedom, Cabral’s defense paid special attention to this criminal action, whose appeals were already in the process of being analyzed by the STJ (Superior Court of Justice).

In this process, the former governor is accused of receiving R$ 2.7 million in bribes for works by Comperj (Petrochemical Complex of Rio de Janeiro).

Cabral’s defense said it celebrated the decision, taken “after Minister Ricardo Lewandowski authorized the use of public evidence arising from Operation Spoofing”, which seized messages exchanged between Lava Jato authorities with hackers.

“This is a great step forward in defense of due process of law and the democratic rule of law,” said lawyers Patrícia Proetti and Carlos Eduardo Frazão in a statement.

The former governor still has 20 criminal convictions, 19 related to Lava Jato. Since 2021, however, he has won victories in the superior courts that have led to the annulment of three sentences – Appio guaranteed him his fourth victory in this matter.

Cabral has been free since the end of last year, after six years in preventive detention.

Initially, the former governor denied the accusations. Two years after his arrest, Cabral decided to confess his crimes.

At the end of 2019, he managed to close a plea deal with the Federal Police, later annulled by the STF in May 2021. Currently, he has again denied having charged bribes and has resumed the defensive thesis of personal use of leftover cash campaign.