Lewandowski asks Moro for information on the investigations against Lula.
The president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Ricardo Lewandowski, requested information from federal judge Sérgio Moro this Thursday (7) before deciding on a request to suspend the investigations against former president Lula that are in the first instance; in the order, Lewandowski granted a 48-hour deadline for Moro to present his statement to the STF; in the complaint, Lula's defense asks the Supreme Court to suspend all proceedings that are under Moro's command and analyze whether the judge usurped the Supreme Court's competence by maintaining Lula's conversations with President Dilma Rousseff and parliamentarians in the proceedings in which the former president is being investigated in Lava Jato.
André Richter – Reporter for Agência Brasil
The president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Ricardo Lewandowski, today (7) asked federal judge Sérgio Moro for information before deciding on a request to suspend the investigations against former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva that are in the first instance. In the order, Lewandowski granted a 48-hour deadline for Moro to present his statement to the STF.
The investigations against the former president were referred to Moro in June, following a decision by Justice Teori Zavascki, who annulled a recording, made during Operation Lava Jato, of a telephone conversation between Lula and the suspended president Dilma Rousseff. In his decision, the Justice understood that the wiretap should be removed from the case because it was recorded by the Federal Police after Sérgio Moro's decision to suspend the monitoring. According to Zavascki's understanding, Moro usurped the Supreme Court's authority by lifting the confidentiality of the conversations.
In the complaint, Lula's defense asks the Supreme Court to suspend all proceedings under Moro's jurisdiction and analyze whether the judge usurped the Supreme Court's authority by allowing Lula's conversations with the ousted president Dilma Rousseff and parliamentarians to remain in the Lava Jato investigations against the former president.
In the petition, the lawyers are requesting a preliminary injunction to have the entire investigation returned to the Supreme Federal Court (STF) because the parliamentarians mentioned in the dialogues have parliamentary immunity and, therefore, can only be judged by that Court. Due to the investigations, Lula's phones were wiretapped following a judge's decision.
"Granting the preliminary injunction is deemed necessary so that this Supreme Federal Court may once again review all related proceedings, consequently suspending the course of such related proceedings, as well as any others containing the content of the interceptions in question," the lawyers argue.
The petition from Lula's lawyers was sent to the president of the Supreme Court due to the Supreme Court's recess period in July. Work will resume in August.