STF annuls Eduardo Cunha’s conviction in Lava Jato

The Second Panel of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) annulled this Monday (29) a conviction of former federal deputy Eduardo Cunha in the Lava Jato operation for passive corruption and money laundering. The collegiate considered, by 3 votes to 2, that the Federal Justice of Paraná was not competent to judge the case. Cunha had been sentenced to nearly 16 years in prison.

The ministers also determined that the action be forwarded to the Electoral Justice. With that, the new judge must decide whether to consider the evidence already obtained valid or whether the investigation should start from scratch. The Court analyzed an appeal from Cunha’s defense in the virtual plenary.

The complaint by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) accuses Cunha of allegedly receiving “undue payment of the bribe previously agreed as a ‘commission’ by Samsung Heavy Industries due to the contract by Petrobras, which had been interrupted with the delivery of the two rigs”.

In 2022, Minister Edson Fachin voted to reject the Cunha defense’s appeal against the conviction. Fachin pointed out that the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) expressed itself in the sense that “the presence of a single fact that characterizes the intention to volatilize the health of the electoral system and whose typical description is mold to electoral offense(s)”. Minister Ricardo Lewandowski, already retired, accompanied the rapporteur.

Ministers Nunes Marques and André Mendonça disagreed and considered that the accusations should be analyzed by the Electoral Justice. Minister Gilmar Mendes, after a request for review, also followed the divergence to send the case to the Electoral Justice.

Cunha’s lawyers, Ticiano Figueiredo, Pedro Ivo Velloso and Délio Lins e Silva, stated that the STF “did justice”. “The Supreme Court’s decision did justice and confirms what the defense has maintained since the beginning of the process and which is now becoming clear to the whole country: Eduardo Cunha, as well as countless other defendants, was the victim of an abusive, partial and illegal and judged by a manifestly incompetent instance”, said the defense, in a note.