With a change of judges and an audit, the 13th court of Curitiba is experiencing turmoil

A 13th Court of Curitiba has been going through intense movements in recent months. It is here that the remaining processes of the Car washan operation that lasted from 2014 to 2021 and resulted in hundreds of complaints, criminal actions and convictions.

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After times of intensity in the first years of the task force – when lawsuits involving names of politicians and businessmen ran in droves, including those relating to the president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) – the 13th court entered a phase of relative stability when the current judge of the Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region (TRF4) Luiz Antônio Bonat took over the unit, in 2019.

But the year 2023 seems to have given way to turbulence, with changes of judges and even an extraordinary audit underway by the National Council of Justice (CNJ), due to disciplinary complaints that are resulting in the inspection of the performance of magistrates and judges linked to the court.

This week there were new substitutions in the 13th, this time, both the main judge and the substitute. It is the second title change in less than a year, since Bonat left the unit and was sworn in as a judge at TRF4, in December 2022. This Monday (19), the federal judge Fabio Nunes de Martino was appointed chief judge of the rod. And as a substitute, the judge took over Murilo Scremin Czezacki.

Martino joined the 4th Region as a substitute federal judge in 2006 and, until he took over the court in Curitiba, he worked at the 1st Federal Court of Ponta Grossa, also in Paraná. Czezacki joined the federal judiciary in 2017 and has now come from the 2nd Cascavel Court, in the west of the state, to the capital.

Before them, the one who took over the court cases was the substitute judge Gabriela Hardt, for a period of less than one month. She had held the position at 13th since 2014, when Sergio Moro he was the titular judge and started to conduct the Lava-Jato processes. When Moro was absent, Gabriela took over the actions.

The judge was responsible, for example, for Lula’s second conviction in the processes resulting from the operation, with the case of the renovation of a farm in Atibaia (SP). Before that, he had been judged guilty by Moro in the Guarujá (SP) triplex case.

After Moro took leave, at the end of 2018, to take over the Ministry of Justice and Public Security in the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, she continued as a substitute judge for Luiz Antonio Bonat, appointed in February of the following year as head of the court.

Bonat came from the 21st Federal Court of Curitiba. It was he who was at the head of the 13th when Minister Edson Fachin, of the STF, declared the court’s incompetence to judge cases involving Lula and the nullity of convictions, in 2021.

After Bonat left the court in Curitiba, Gabriela took over again, until the designation of the title to Eduardo Appioin February of this year, according to the criterion of seniority of registered judges.

different lines

While Moro, Hardt and Bonat had a more aligned profile, Appio was known to be critical of Lava-Jato’s methods. During the time he headed the court, he took testimony from Odebrecht’s lawyer and defendant in one of the task force’s lawsuits, Rodrigo Tacla Duran, in which he accused former Lava-Jato attorney Deltan Dallagnol and former judge Sergio Moro, of trying to extort him so that he would not be arrested during the unfolding of the operation.

As at the time Dallagnol had not yet had his mandate as federal deputy revoked, and Moro being a senator, Appio sent the case to the Federal Supreme Court (STF), responsible for analyzing actions involving parliamentarians with privileged jurisdiction. After Dallagnol left the Chamber, however, the judge even scheduled a face-to-face hearing with him and Tacla Duran, which would take place this Monday (19).

Before that, however, Eduardo Appio was removed on a precautionary basis from the 13th court and from the remaining Lava-Jato cases by decision of the advice from TRF4, at the end of May. The decision was based on a request by the federal judge Marcelo Malucelli, which stated that his son, João Eduardo Barreto Malucelli, would have received a telephone call in a threatening tone. João Malucelli is a partner at the Wolff Moro office, in Curitiba, whose partners are Senator Sergio Moro and his wife, Federal Deputy Rosangela Moro (União Brasil-SP). Both declare themselves away from the office since they began their mandates.

The call was recorded and, after an investigation commissioned from the Federal Police, the council concluded that there were indications that the voice in the call was Appio’s. The confrontation between Appio and Malucelli, however, predated the connection episode, since, in April, Malucelli would have reinstated a preventive arrest order against Tacla Duran previously overturned by Appio. The information was confirmed by TRF4 and, soon after, refuted.

Subsequently, Malucelli declared himself a suspect for acting in the Lava-Jato processes and asked to be removed from the case. Both he and Appio, who is trying to be reinstated as holder of the 13th court in Curitiba, are having their conduct investigated by the CNJ.

In the midst of this context, Gabriela Hardt was already trying to leave the 13th through an internal contest, in which she applied for a vacancy in the Federal Court of Florianópolis. However, a colleague with more seniority took the vacancy at the end of May.

The transfer came this week, with her assignment by TRF4 to the 3rd Appellate Panel of Paraná.

Complaints and investigation of conduct

The occurrences led to the determination of a fine-toothed comb in the 13th court of Curitiba by Minister Luís Felipe Salomão, CNJ inspector. The procedure of extraordinary correctionas it is formally called, was due to the existence of several disciplinary complaints presented to the council pointing to the need for inspection and verification of facts related to the conduct of magistrates and judges linked to the court, among other reasons.

A team of 3 auxiliary judges and 3 other civil servants from the National Corregedoria were designated for the procedure. The CNJ ordinance that determined the correction (32/2023) points out that, during the execution of the work, the presidency of the court provides a suitable environment for the inspection, as well as summons people appointed by the auxiliary judges of the National Corregedoria. If necessary, they must attend the court in person to provide clarifications to the council team.

The CNJ clarifies that it is the functional attribution of the national internal affairs department to carry out this type of procedure, either for external reasons presented to the council or acting autonomously. According to the CNJ, procedural deadlines are not suspended during correction and work at the unit proceeds regularly.

The fact is that the procedure is taking longer than expected. The ordinance predicted that the correction would be from May 31 to June 2, but the CNJ confirmed that it is still in progress.

The audit takes place in secrecy. But, after it is finished, nothing prevents the attributions of the 13th court of Curitiba from being completely revised, including the possibility of spraying the remaining Lava-Jato processes to other courts.

For the lawyer, movements are expected

Attorney Vivian Lima López Valle, doctor in State Law and professor of Administrative and Constitutional Law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná (PUCPR)believes that it is not possible to relate the movements in the 13th court of Curitiba with the changes in the direction of the processes in recent years.

“The structure of the judiciary allows judges to move around, and they do so frequently, either by promotion, by removal process as well or by criteria of seniority or merit”, he explains.

With these changes, it is natural for judges with different lines of thought to alternate in conducting actions. “As a lawyer, in some situations I have already had the opportunity to have cases in which there was a change of judge and understandings changed. Law is dynamic,” she points out.

For the lawyer, given the complexity and extent of Operation Lava-Jato, it is not surprising, therefore, that so many comings and goings happen over time. “This ends up bringing, of course, impacts on the conduct of processes”, she evaluates.