The arrest of today’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) was a “setup” and “one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in the country’s history.” This is stated by Minister Dias Toffoli, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), who annulled this Wednesday (6) all the evidence obtained through the leniency agreement of the construction company Odebrecht and the company’s bribery systems within the scope of Operation Lava Jet.
Toffoli’s decision was published in response to a request from Lula’s defense, which guaranteed access to the files of Operation Spoofing, which investigated the hacking of cell phones of former judge Sergio Moro and former public prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol.
In the text in which he confirmed the annulment of the evidence, Toffoli said that Lula’s arrest was “the result of a power project by certain public agents in their objective of conquering the State through apparently legal means, but with methods and actions contra legem (‘ against the law’, in the Portuguese translation)”.
In a blunt statement, the Supreme Court minister continued to say that the actions of public agents that culminated in the arrest of the then former president, in April 2018, began the process that led the country to recent threats of democratic rupture. Lula was imprisoned for 580 days in Curitiba, and left after the Supreme Court decided to annul his arrest following a court decision in the second instance.
“I say without fear of making mistakes, (the prison) was the true egg of the snake of attacks on democracy and institutions that were already foreshadowed in the actions and voices of these agents against the institutions and the STF itself. This egg was hatched by authorities who made a detour of function, acting in collusion to reach institutions, authorities, companies and specific targets”, wrote Toffoli.
The minister also argued that there was disrespect for due legal process and superior judicial decisions, forged evidence, actions with partiality and outside the sphere of competence of public agents, who, for him, “did not distinguish, on purpose, innocent people from criminals”. More than that, those involved used “true psychological torture, A 21st CENTURY ARARA DICK, to obtain ‘evidence’ against innocent people”, wrote the minister in all caps.
In his 135-page decision, Toffoli published part of the leaked dialogues that involved agents like Moro and Dallagnol. The minister acknowledged that the operation investigated “illegal acts truly committed, investigated and sanctioned”, but that he used the allegation of combating corruption to “take a political leader to prison, with partiality and collusion, forging ‘evidence'”.
“Furthermore, by heterodox and illegal means they affected natural and legal persons, regardless of their culpability or not. And worse, they destroyed national technologies, companies, jobs and public and private assets. They affected lives, taken by acquired tumors, strokes and heart attacks”, he highlighted about the agents involved.
Moro speaks out
Now a senator for União Brasil, representing Paraná, Moro took to social media to speak out. Without directly citing Toffoli’s decision, he stated on X (formerly Twitter) that “criminals confessed and more than six billion reais were recovered for Petrobras.”
“This was the work of Lava Jato, within the law, with decisions confirmed for years by the Superior Courts. Brazilians saw, supported and know the truth. We respect the institutions and all our action was legal. We will fight, in the Senate, for right to truth, integrity and democracy”, added the former judge and former Minister of Justice and former opponent of Jair Bolsonaro (PL).
Editing: Rodrigo Chagas
