Minister of the STF (Supreme Federal Court) Gilmar Méndez called this Monday (10th) to emphasize that the appeal judgment by Renato Duque, the former head of services of Petrobras, against all the actions of the Special Committee for Operation Raba Jato and former judge Sérgio Moro, should be brought before the face-to-face plenary session of the Second Committee.
The case was being analyzed in a virtual plenary session, a system in which ministers vote without debate. The session begins on the 31st and ends this Monday.
Mr. Toffoli, the reporter on the case, initially voted against Mr. Duque’s request, but he said he retracted his vote after analyzing Mr. Gilmar Mendez’s vote. The two stood up for the reversal of the conviction and, as a result, the release of the former Petrobras manager from prison.
Next, unlike Mr. Guilmar and Mr. Toffoli, Casio Nunez Marquez and Andre Mendonça voted. All that was missing was the vote of Raba Jato supporter Louis Fuchs. However, Gilmer interrupted his analysis. A date for the trial to resume has not yet been set.
In a vote, the STF dean said there was “no question that illegal evidence obtained from foreign authorities outside official channels was improperly used” in the case against Duque.
He cited conversations about the impersonation operation, including message exchanges between members of Raba Jato, including former prosecutor Deltan Daragnol.
In it, prosecutors at the time said they would use Duque’s data in Monaco to support the request for arrest, before receiving information through official international cooperation channels.
Guilmar also said in the vote that Duque was a “political target” of the task force. “This is yet another defendant who has been subjected to the same actions and process, the same illegal, abusive, and corrosive process of due process, due judgeship, and the same guarantees of fairness that are expected in any trial,” he said.
The minister added that Duque is described in the complaint as “a liaison and a person of intense trust for politicians and members of the highest leadership of the Labor Party,” and that this connection “made him the subject of abusive measures.”
Duque was one of the main targets of the operation and one of the longest serving prisoners. Last year, a federal judge in Paraná state ordered him to return to prison, saying he still had to serve 39 years, two months and 20 days in prison under a closed regime.
The punishment refers to four convictions that have already been finalized, meaning they have no possibility of appeal, and include offenses of passive corruption and money laundering. This year, we have moved into a semi-open system.
In coordinating a vote to quash the action against Duque, Toffoli also ordered the reversal of a decision ordering his arrest last year.
Mr. Duque served two other terms in prison, from November to December 2014. I then used an electronic ankle bracelet until April 2023.
During his sentence, he offered to cooperate with the court, confessing to committing the crime and agreeing to give up 100 million reais in overseas accounts. He also criticized today’s President Lula (PT).
Since 2023, Toffoli has taken the decision to nullify the operation. The two former construction company presidents who signed the statement benefited from this type of decision. They are Leo Pinheiro and Marcelo Odebrecht from the former OAS (now Meta).
Money changer Alberto Youssef and former minister Antonio Palozzi also benefited.
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