Federal Regional Court Paves way to Overturn Lula’s Conviction Over Atibaia Ranch

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL –  The Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region (TRF-4) judged on Wednesday a case involving a conviction handed down by Judge Gabriela Hardt and decided to reverse the decision on the grounds that the judge copied and reproduced as her arguments from third parties, in this case the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (MPF), by convicting defendants linked to the Instituto Confiance.

Although this is not a Lava Jato investigation, the TRF-4’s decision has the potential to create a breach in the shell of the operation.

The argument advocated by attorneys Antonio Augusto Figueiredo Basto and Rodrigo Mattos, accepted by the 8th Panel of the court, prompted Lula’s defense to petition for the annulment of the leftist’s conviction in the Atibaia ranch case.

The lawyers of the PT leader argued that the same judge when convicting Lula for the reforms made by the ‘Petrolão’ case companies on the ranch, copied excerpts from the Guarujá triplex sentence, signed by Sérgio Moro. An expert’s report, commissioned by the defense with excerpts allegedly copied by the judge, was eventually sent to the Federal Supreme Court (STF).

Gabriela, who replaced Moro in Curitiba’s Federal Court, sentenced Lula to 12 years and 11 months in prison in the case of the ranch in February for crimes of passive and active corruption and money laundering.

The TRF-4 was due to judge by the end of the month whether Lula’s sentence in the Atibaia ranch case should be suspended for another reason: the fact that the deadlines for final allegations were the same for whistleblowers and defendants. The STF decided to reverse Lava Jato’s convictions on the grounds that this equal position unbalanced the procedural dispute.

Should the case return to the allegations stage, as the MPF itself wishes, this shortcoming in the excerpts copied in the sentence may be corrected.

Source: Veja