Supreme Court releases Dirceu, making Lula's imprisonment untenable.

By Andre Richter, reporter for Agência Brasil - By a vote of 3 to 1, the Second Panel of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) decided in the early afternoon of this Tuesday (26) to suspend the execution of the sentence of former minister José Dirceu to 30 years in prison in Operation Lava Jato. With the decision, Dirceu should be released. He is serving his sentence at the Papuda Penitentiary, in Brasília. Dirceu's situation is similar to Lula's, which makes his continued imprisonment unsustainable - it is clear that he is a political prisoner. The sequence and content of today's decisions by the Second Panel clearly indicate that the former president would have been released if the case had not been removed from the agenda by the rapporteur.

The decision regarding Dirceu was made based on a habeas corpus petition filed by his defense. The rapporteur, Dias Toffoli, and ministers Gilmar Mendes and Ricardo Lewandowski voted for his release. Edson Fachin, rapporteur for the Lava Jato cases at the Supreme Court, voted against granting freedom. The majority understood that the calculation of the sentence could be reviewed and that Dirceu could await the appeal against his conviction while free.

Fachin was defeated in all the judgments this Tuesday morning in the Second Panel. Among the decisions were the annulment of a search and seizure warrant, the suspension of a criminal case, and, most importantly, a habeas corpus granted ex officio to release former Workers' Party minister José Dirceu and former PP treasurer João Cláudio Genu, who were convicted in the second instance and already serving their sentences, according to the understanding of the Supreme Court.

Both Dirceu and Genu were in a situation similar to Lula's. Convicted in the second instance, serving their sentences after the exhaustion of appeals. Both also requested injunctions from the Supreme Court, wanting to await the judgment of their appeals against the conviction in freedom. The justification is: there is a chance that the sentence will be reduced or the conviction modified in some way when reviewed by higher courts. These are the same arguments as those of the Workers' Party's defense.

To avoid two precedents favorable to the former president's argument, Fachin requested a review of the cases, but was unable to prevent the defendants from being released. Minister Dias Toffoli granted a preliminary injunction in a habeas corpus proceeding ex officio to release Genu and Dirceu, and was joined by Lewandowski and Gilmar Mendes.

The situation generated a more heated discussion and an exchange of barbs between Fachin and Toffoli, which can be interpreted as a harbinger of the expected clash between the two ministers, starting in September, when Toffoli will assume the presidency of the Court.

José Dirceu was arrested last month after his conviction was upheld by the second instance of the Federal Court, based on the understanding of the Supreme Federal Court, which authorized the provisional execution of the sentence after the exhaustion of appeals in the second instance.