Lava Jato judge has fire test after supporting Moro – 07/21/2023 – Power

New Lava Jato judge in Curitiba, Fábio Nunes de Martino, has his next decisions on the processes of diversion of resources at Petrobras awaited as “tests by fire” by prosecutors and defendants’ lawyers.

The 13th Federal Court was shaken in recent months with the removal of the titular judge, the removal of the then substitute judge and an extraordinary correction –a kind of audit– promoted by the Corregedoria of the CNJ (National Council of Justice).

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Martino, 46, worked at the 1st Federal Court in Ponta Grossa (PR) before taking over the remaining processes of Operation Lava Jato, on June 19.

Since then, the magistrate has preferred not to give interviews to the press. In the legal environment, he is cited as discreet and technical, but he has in his career an endorsement of a motion in support of former federal judge Sergio Moro, in June 2019.

That year, Moro was already Minister of Justice for Jair Bolsonaro (PL) when The Intercept Brasil website began to reveal messages, also published by Sheetexchanged between the then judge and members of the MPF (Federal Public Ministry) at the height of Lava Jato.

In reaction to the scandal, 271 federal judges, including Martino, signed a public letter in which they said that the content of the hacked messages “does not offend the principle of impartiality that governs the conduct of a magistrate” and only shows a “routine republican inter-institutional dialogue in all forums in the country”.

In the document, there was a vehement defense of Moro and Lava Jato. “We do not accept that the excellence of this herculean work, a true turning point in the fight against corruption and crimes committed by the powerful, is degraded by innocuous and criminally obtained messages”, says an excerpt.

In his law degree, in 2000, from Unirio (Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro), Martino was guided by Simone Schreiber, a federal judge of the TRF-2 (Federal Regional Court of the 2nd Region) and rapporteur of the Lava Jato processes in the court of Rio de Janeiro since 2021.

Appointed as a “guarantee judge”, Schreiber circulates on the list of listed companies to succeed STF (Federal Supreme Court) minister Rosa Weber, who retires in October.

In the curriculum available on the Lattes platform, Martino also informs about an ongoing master’s degree at USP (University of São Paulo), in procedural law, under the guidance of Maria Thereza Rocha de Assis Moura, today president of the STJ (Superior Court of Justice) and considered to have a technical profile in the legal field.

Until last week, Martino had conducted at least two hearings to question defendants, but he has not yet signed weighty decisions or sentences. Among the “tests by fire” expected in the coming days are requests to release large sums of money from defendants.

Martino should also soon address another case considered relevant to the course of the operation, which is a petition presented by the defense of Alberto Youssef to obtain all the investigations already carried out in relation to the case of the environmental listening device found in 2014 in the PF jail in Curitiba, where the money changer was imprisoned.

Youssef’s defense presented the petition in April, and the then titular judge Eduardo Appio has already determined that the PF provide investigations into the illegal wiretapping. Part of the material, however, has not yet been made available to the defense, which has been demanding access. Furthermore, the MPF contested Appio’s decisions in the case. The imbroglio is now in the hands of the new magistrate.

The objective of Youssef’s defense is to find evidence and past situations that may have interfered in the award-winning collaboration agreement signed between the money changer and the MPF. Youssef was the main target of the initial stage of Lava Jato, in 2014. Months later, he signed one of the first collaboration agreements of the operation, in which he accused politicians and contractors. Any breach of the agreement could have repercussions for the entire investigation.

Martino should not act, however, in some cases that generated controversy in recent months, when the 13th Court was in the hands of Eduardo Appio: the processes of lawyer Rodrigo Tacla Duran and businessman and former state deputy Tony Garcia, which were suspended by decision of the STF and should no longer be moved in Curitiba. They make accusations against former Lava Jato authorities, such as Moro and former prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol, who recently had his mandate as a federal deputy removed.

Initially, Martino was assigned to work at the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba between June 19 and July 15. But the deadline will be extended, each month, until the outcome of the preliminary procedure that is being processed by the Corregedoria of TRF-4 (Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region) against Appio.

In addition, the preliminary procedure can turn into a disciplinary process, which makes it unlikely that he will return to the chair, in the view of the legal environment.

The temporary removal, by decision of the special administrative court of TRF-4, took place on May 22, after the Court’s Internal Affairs revealed that Appio would have made a call to lawyer João Eduardo Barreto Malucelli pretending to be someone else, and apparently trying to prove that he was talking to the son of federal judge Marcelo Malucelli, then rapporteur for Lava Jato in second instance.

João Eduardo is a partner of Moro in a law firm and, at that time, Marcelo Malucelli and Appio had conflicting judicial decisions regarding the defendant Tacla Duran.

A report by the Federal Police points out that the audio of the call, made on April 13, “strongly supports the hypothesis” that it is Appio’s voice. But the defense of the removed judge has been denying authorship.

Appio hired two defense fronts, one at the CNJ, led by lawyer Pedro Serrano, and another within the TRF-4, with lawyer Alexandre Wunderlich.