Geoffrey Robertson: plea bargaining is a medieval practice, it's torture.
The lawyer for former president Lula in the case before the UN, Australian Geoffrey Robertson, a world reference on the subject of Human Rights, participated this Wednesday, the 30th, in a debate in the Senate about the case; in his speech, he harshly criticized the process by which plea bargains are made within the scope of Lava Jato; "Prisoners will say whatever their tormentors want to be released. Plea bargains are questionable. It's a medieval practice, it's torture," he said; the lawyer stressed that it is "crucial to guarantee that Lula has a fair trial"; "And I don't think what's happening now is a fair trial," he stated.
247 - Representing former President Lula in the action that the defense presented to the UN Human Rights Committee against abuses committed by Operation Lava Jato against the Workers' Party member, Australian lawyer Geoffrey Robertson participated this Wednesday, the 30th, in a debate on the subject in a Senate committee.
In his speech, he harshly criticized plea bargains within the context of Lava Jato. "Prisoners will say whatever their tormentors want in order to be released. Plea bargains are questionable. It's a medieval practice, it's torture," he said.
The lawyer, a world-renowned expert on Human Rights, stressed that "it is crucial to ensure that Lula has a fair trial." "And I don't think what's happening now is a fair trial," he stated.
Read more in the Senate Agency's report about the hearing:
CDH discusses complaint filed by former President Lula with the UN Human Rights Committee.
The complaint filed by former President Lula's defense with the United Nations Human Rights Committee was the central theme of a debate on Wednesday (30) at the Human Rights and Participatory Legislation Committee (CDH). Participants in the hearing defended the former president's right to an impartial trial and criticized some procedures of Operation Lava-Jato.
Australian lawyer Geoffrey Robertson works in the defense of human rights and civil liberties and represents former President Lula in the complaint he filed with the United Nations Human Rights Committee. In the complaint, the defense alleges that the trial of the former president by Judge Sérgio Moro has disregarded fundamental guarantees of the democratic state.
At the hearing, Robertson said that every citizen deserves a fair trial and questioned the use of pretrial detention in Operation Lava Jato. According to the lawyer, whose presentation was simultaneously translated for those present, there is a deliberate extension of the detention period so that those under investigation, under psychological pressure, will enter into plea bargain agreements.
"Often, questionable plea bargains occur. These plea bargains also result in a significant reduction in sentences; people receive only a fraction of the sentence they should receive," he pointed out.
Senator Gleisi Hoffmann (PT-PR) defended a parliamentary investigation into what she described as "abuses of Lava-Jato" and criticized the Judiciary's stance that allows for differential treatment based on a citizen's origin and race.
"The son of a judge who was caught with kilos of drugs in his car wasn't even in jail for an hour; he was released. We have another young man who participated in the 2013 protests and was caught with two bottles of disinfectant, and he's still in jail. The difference is that he's black and poor," he complained.
The representative of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB), Carlos Moura, spoke about the difference in treatment given by the Brazilian police to poor and black citizens and suggested that human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson should examine the concept of "auto de resistência" (resistance report), a police record that has been used to justify summary executions, under the allegation that there was resistance to arrest on the part of the victim.
With information from Radio Senado.