TRF-4 opens process and keeps Judge Eduardo Appio away from Lava Jato processes

The justices of the Special Court of the Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region (TRF-4) decided to open an administrative disciplinary process against Judge Eduardo Appio, who has been away from the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba since May. The decision, taken this Monday (24) unanimously, keeps the magistrate away from the functions in the branch responsible for the criminal proceedings of Operation Lava Jato.

The process has an expected duration of 140 days that can be extended and will investigate a possible breach of “decorum of the functions of the judiciary” by Appio, investigated for allegedly making a call from a blocked number to the son of the judge Marcelo Malucelli, trying to obtain data to intimidate and embarrass the magistrate.

“It does not seem acceptable that a magistrate would use this kind of artifice. The conduct is contrary to the dignity, honor and decorum of the functions of the judiciary”, wrote Cândido Alfredo Silva Leal Júnior, regional magistrate, in a report on the Appio process.

The TRF-4 inspector considers that Appio may have committed at least four infractions when contacting João Eduardo Barreto Malucelli, such as consulting data from a restricted system, making a call via telephone without caller ID, impersonating a third person and the connection to the son of a judge who “was a rapporteur in partial corrections that the magistrate suffered”.

Last week, the National Council of Justice decided to keep Appio away from his duties and pointed out a “very serious conduct” by the magistrate. The national justice inspector, Luís Felipe Salomão understood that “there are sufficient elements to maintain the magistrate’s removal until the end of the investigations”.

Salomão stated that keeping Appio in office could hinder the investigation of what happened, as he would have free access to the Federal Justice’s computer systems.

After Appio’s removal, the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba began to have the processes conducted by Judge Gabriela Hardt, who ended up being removed in mid-June after an audit by the CNJ. The division came to be handled by federal judges Fábio Nunes de Martino and Murilo Scremin Czezacki.