Barbosa closes the door on appeals in Costa Rica.

247 The president of the Supreme Federal Court went to Costa Rica under the pretext of participating in an event on press freedom promoted by UNESCO, but he returns with his real mission accomplished: Joaquim Barbosa seems to have managed to close the doors to appeals by those convicted in Criminal Action 470 to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

The organization's secretary-general, Pablo Saavedra, warned in an interview with the newspaper O Globo this Friday that, on average, an appeal takes six to seven years to reach the body. The explanation is that appeals must be forwarded through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, D.C., which usually takes a long time to send the case to the Court.

That's assuming the commission proceeds with the case, which doesn't always happen. When the case reaches the Court, it can still take a year and a half to be judged. Added together, this period is longer than the prison time of many of those convicted in Criminal Action 470, including former minister José Dirceu, whose 10-year and 10-month sentence should amount to at least 1 year and 9 months in jail.

Saavedra commented that, in theory, the Court can overturn a conviction. "In some cases, there is a change in the conviction. But it depends on the case; I don't know the details of the Mensalão trial," commented the Secretary-General of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Unequal treatment

During his visit to Costa Rica, Barbosa said that one of the factors contributing to impunity in Brazil is the unequal treatment by the justice system. According to him, there is a difference in how cases involving people with greater purchasing power, who can afford good lawyers, are handled, compared to those involving "the poor, black people, and people without connections."

"People are treated differently according to their professional status"Their skin color and the money they have. All of this plays a huge role in the judicial system and especially in impunity," he said. According to the minister, an unethical closeness prevails in the country between powerful lawyers and judges, which ends up unbalancing the administration of justice. "This powerful person can hire a powerful lawyer with connections in the judiciary, who may have contacts with judges, without any control from the Public Prosecutor's Office or society. And then come the surprising decisions: a person accused of committing a crime is left free," he argued during the debate.

Even while pointing out this flaw, which he believes exists not only in Brazil and Latin America but throughout the world, Barbosa said that the Brazilian Judiciary is reliable, strong, and independent of the Legislative and Executive branches. "Judges are respected by most people," he stated.

The president of the Supreme Court also justified the delay in the Brazilian Judiciary's response due to the country's complex appeals system, which allows up to four instances to analyze the same issue. He also spoke about the problems of privileged jurisdiction, which allows politicians and certain authorities to be judged by higher courts, and not by first-instance courts.

With Brazil Agency