A dinner that embraces due process.

By Carol Proner

The dinner hosted by the Prerogativas Group, held at an elegant steakhouse in São Paulo on the 19th, was the biggest legal-political event of 2021, but not exactly because of the headlines in the major newspapers.

The mainstream press is reporting the meeting as definitive proof of the alliance between Lula and Alckmin, celebrating the union of historically opposing political camps to defeat Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 elections.  

But, beyond the dispute over the interpretations of what the handshake between the two meant, as captured by photographer Ricardo Stuckert, or the symbolism of the cordial embrace that appeared in headline photos in newspapers and blogs, the meeting, which brought together more than 500 professionals from the legal and political alliance fields, had as its main objective to celebrate Lula's PERSEVERANCE in the fight to prove his innocence and, of course, the happy ending after years of media and judicial persecution and a political imprisonment of more than 580 days.

What everyone who attended the Prerogatives Group event knew was that it was about bringing together the legal and political fields to restore the political rights of the most persecuted man in the country's history. Persecuted precisely by the justice system itself, stemming from his defection, the fraud committed by certain actors – judges and prosecutors of Lava Jato – and the instrumentalization of the institutions of criminal procedural law, such as coercive measures, plea bargaining, and preventive detention.

This event, therefore, is historic and necessary to solidify the understanding of what is just and what is unjust in a legal process. This was stated by the Supreme Federal Court when it declared the partiality and, more seriously, the bias of former judge Sérgio Moro, who, after serving as a Minister under Jair Bolsonaro and venturing into law practice in the United States, is now being investigated by the Federal Court of Accounts for a possible conflict of interest in the Odebrecht bankruptcy proceedings.  

For the lawyers, professors, judges, public defenders, and members of the Public Prosecutor's Office present at the meeting, there is no unanimity when it comes to alliances, whether the winks and smiles exchanged at the meeting are definitive signs of pacts or mere nods of direction. These arrangements, as a rule, fall outside the purview of legal professionals. 

What unites the legal field, what is indeed a consensus among all those gathered there, is that, whatever the political agreement for the country's project from 2022 onwards, such degeneration of the justice system cannot be repeated. And, as we recently saw with the Ciro and Cid Gomes episode, the authoritarian tendency survives Lava Jato.

Never again in the history of this country will we be contaminated by liars wearing robes in the name of fighting corruption to violate the political rights of the entire society, to corrupt journalists and public opinion, to distort and condemn the image of people, public and private companies, and to destroy jobs and the country's economy.

The meeting sends an important message to political forces, regardless of the party alignment for the upcoming elections: that the institutions of the justice system, the Public Prosecutor's Office and its baseless accusations, the politicization of the judiciary, the inaction of correctional bodies, and even the endorsement, by certain law firms, of the perversities of Lava Jato, violating due process, are all on trial.

This should be the headline in newspapers covering the flashy year-end dinner of the Prerogatives Group. Much more than any embrace, what is at stake for the future of the country is the restoration of confidence in the institutions of the Judiciary.