TRF4 council removes Lava Jato judge Eduardo Appio

The Council of the Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region (TRF-4) decided this Monday (22) to remove the judge of the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba, Eduardo Appio, responsible for the Lava Jato processes. After notification, Appio will have 15 days to present his defense. The decision responded to a request by federal judge Marcelo Malucelli.

In the representation, Malucelli alleges that his son, João Eduardo Barreto Malucelli, would have received “threats” during a telephone call, reported the g1 portal. The TRF4 board considered that there are indications that Appio made the call.

According to the council, there is “a lot of similarity between the voice of the interlocutor of the suspicious telephone call and that of the federal judge Eduardo Fernando Appio, and then the Presidency of the TRF4 and the Regional Corregedoria reported these facts to the Federal Police and requested an expertise to compare the interlocutor of the suspicious connection with that federal magistrate”.

In addition to removing Appio from office, the TRF4 also suspended his access to the Federal Justice buildings and electronic system. Earlier, the judge stated that, in fact, he used the acronym “LUL22” as an electronic identification in the Federal Justice system of Paraná, the E-proc, between 2021 and the beginning of 2022.

“A few years ago, when President Lula was still in prison, my acronym for accessing the Federal Justice system was ‘LUL22’. At the time, I worked with social security matters and this was an isolated, individual protest against a prison that I considered it illegal. And then, in fact, the Federal Supreme Court considered the arrest illegal”, said Appio in an interview with Estúdio I, of the GloboNews.