Lewandowski: Supreme Court must analyze change of rapporteur.
Contrary to what the Attorney General of the Republic, Roberto Gurgel, said earlier, Minister Ricardo Lewandowski says that the full Supreme Court will have to assess whether the Court's president, Joaquim Barbosa, will remain as rapporteur for Criminal Action 470; convicted defendants such as José Dirceu and Roberto Jefferson requested in their appeals a change in the rapporteurship of the case.
247 - The Attorney General of the Republic, Roberto Gurgel, said this Thursday that the legislation in force and the Internal Regulations of the Supreme Federal Court do not allow the replacement of Minister Joaquim Barbosa as rapporteur of Criminal Action 470, as requested by some convicted defendants, such as former minister José Dirceu and former congressman Roberto Jefferson (read moreAccording to the vice-president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Ricardo Lewandowski, however, the full court will have to evaluate the request.
Lewandowski avoided commenting on the issue, but said it should go to the full court. "I will only comment in the full court; it's a matter that will be discussed in the full court. If it is alleged, it will have to be examined," said the minister. "He [Barbosa] may even eventually decide unilaterally, but every unilateral decision is always subject to appeal to the full court, as we all know," he added.
According to Lewandowski, the rapporteur will have to decide whether the appeals filed by the 25 convicted individuals will be analyzed together or separately. "Technically, it is possible to judge them separately; there is no technical reason that obliges us to judge all the appeals at once," Lewandowski commented.
The Supreme Court's vice-president, who acted as reviewer of the case, said that it is not standard practice for the rapporteur to analyze appeals in isolation. "Only if it [the appeal] is manifestly irrelevant. And if [Joaquim Barbosa] denies it, an appeal is possible. The general rule is that the full court examines it, even if summarily," he said. The appeals should begin to be analyzed starting next week.