PGR accuses Moro of slander against Gilmar Mendes

The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) denounced Senator Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR) to the Federal Supreme Court (STF) for the alleged crime of slander against Minister Gilmar Mendes, a member of the Court. Last Friday (14), a video was released on social media in which the former Lava Jato judge talks about “buying a habeas corpus from Gilmar Mendes”. After the content became public, the dean of the Supreme appealed to the PGR to adopt the appropriate measures on the case.

“No, this is bail, institute… to buy a habeas corpus from Gilmar Mendes”, says Moro in the video. However, the context and motivation of the senator’s statement is not known. Check out the note from Moro’s advisory below.

The Deputy Attorney General of the Republic, Lindôra Araújo, analyzed the request and considered that the senator committed the crime of slander against the STF minister by “falsely imputing the crime of passive corruption” to the minister. If the senator is convicted in the future and the penalty applied eventually exceeds four years in prison, the PGR also argued that Moro should lose his mandate.

“The accused SERGIO FERNANDO MORO issued the statement in public, in the presence of several people, with the knowledge that he was being recorded by a third party, which facilitated the dissemination of the slanderous statement, which became public on April 14, 2023, gaining wide repercussions in the national press and in the social networks of the World Wide Web”, says the PGR.

“At an uncertain date, time and place, the accused SERGIO FERNANDO MORO, with free will and conscience, slandered the Minister of the Federal Supreme Court GILMAR FERREIRA MENDES, falsely imputing to him the crime of passive corruption, provided for in article 317 of the Penal Code, when stating that the victim requests or receives, due to their public function, an undue advantage to grant habeas corpus, or accepts a promise of such advantage”, says the deputy attorney general.

In addition, the PGR requests that an indemnity be fixed to Gilmar Mendes “considering the damage suffered”. For Lindôra, Moro “acted with the clear intention of tarnishing the image and objective honor of the offended party, trying to discredit his performance as a magistrate of the highest court in the country”.

In the document, Lindôra also asks that Moro be notified “to present a preliminary response to the accusation, within fifteen days”; and that the complaint be received by the Court, responsible for analyzing actions against public agents with privileged jurisdiction, and “the consequent initiation of the criminal action, with the summons of the accused to offer defense prior to the terms of the imputation, within five days”.

For the defense of Gilmar Mendes, Moro’s statement “indicates the practice by the Senator of the crimes provided for in articles 138, 139 and 140 of the Penal Code, thus demanding the need to initiate a criminal prosecution in his disfavor, according to article 145, sole paragraph, of the Penal Code”.

What Moro says about the complaint

Moro’s advisory released a note in which he states that “the fragments of the video edited and released by third parties do not reveal any accusation against Minister Gilmar Mendes”.

“Senator Sergio Moro has always spoken respectfully in relation to the Federal Supreme Court and its Ministers, even when provoked or contradicted. hear the Senator in advance”, says the note.