Minister Ricardo Lewandowski announces retirement for April 11

The Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Ricardo Lewandowski announced this Thursday (30) his retirement for April 11. The minister decided to anticipate his retirement by one month. The legislation determines that judges must leave the Court when they reach 75 years of age.

Lewandowski will turn 75 on May 11. Now, it will be up to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) to indicate a new name for the Court. “I have just delivered to the President of the Supreme Court, Minister Rosa Weber, a letter in which I ask her to forward my request for retirement to the President of the Republic, which will be brought forward by about 30 days”, said the minister at a press conference. .

“I asked that my retirement be made effective from the 11th of April. This anticipation of mine is due to academic and professional commitments that await me”, he added. This Thursday’s STF session was the last with Lewandowski’s participation. “I leave here with the conviction that I fulfilled my mission”, he highlighted.

“I am very pleased to have contributed to the implementation, for example, of custody hearings in our country. This is a reality today, I think it was a civilizing advance, of course I didn’t do it alone, I did it with collaborators from the National Council of Justice… This is one of the initiatives of which I am very proud”, he pointed out.

Asked if he even talked to Lula about a possible replacement, Lewandowski denied it. “This is a decision, regarding my successor, exclusive to the President of the Republic and I wouldn’t even dare to make any suggestion in this regard”, he said. The magistrate was appointed to the Supreme Court during Lula’s second term, in 2006.

For the minister, his successor must be “faithful to the Constitution, to the fundamental rights and guarantees in its various generations, but he needs to be, above all, courageous to face the enormous pressures that a minister of the Federal Supreme Court has to face in his daily life” .