Batochio: "The silence from the Brazilian Bar Association has gone beyond what is reasonable."
Former president of the Brazilian Bar Association, criminal lawyer José Roberto Batochio, demands a firmer stance from the current president of the organization, Marcus Vinícius Furtado Coelho, regarding the abuses committed by the president of the Supreme Federal Court, Joaquim Barbosa, and even makes a joke: "if the head of the Judiciary can choose a judge outside the legal parameters because he thinks he will be more rigorous than the natural judge, the defendants should also be given the right to choose the judge by whom they want to be judged"; Batochio points to "heterodoxy" in the case and criticizes the OAB's stance; the recent controversy concerns Barbosa's choice of Judge Bruno Ribeiro to handle the arrests in Criminal Action 470.
247 - Criminal lawyer José Roberto Batochio, former president of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB), is demanding a firmer stance from the OAB itself in the face of the abuses of power by the president of the Supreme Federal Court, Joaquim Barbosa. According to him, the Brazilian judicial system has given recurring examples of "heterodoxy" in Criminal Action 470. Batochio also states that "the OAB's silence has gone beyond what is reasonable."
The most recent controversy concerns Joaquim Barbosa's decision to replace Judge Ademar Vasconcelos, of the Federal District's Criminal Enforcement Court, who was overseeing the arrests in Criminal Action 470, with Bruno Ribeiro, son of a PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) leader from the Federal District. Batochio even makes a joke about the case. "If someone can replace a judge because they think this judge will be more rigorous with the defendants, then defendants should also be given the right to choose the judge who wants them to be tried by," he states.
According to Batochio, the decision disrespects the judiciary as a whole, since judges have several guaranteed rights, and also the right to a defense – since every defendant has the right to a so-called natural judge.
It's worth remembering that Barbosa tried to undermine Ademar Vasconcelos's actions even before the arrests, since, ten days earlier, he had already sent the arrest warrants to Bruno Ribeiro, who was on vacation – and not to the judge who was the proper judge.