Teori denies Cunha's defense request to delay the process.

Justice Teori Zavascki, rapporteur for Operation Lava Jato at the Supreme Federal Court (STF), denied the request made by the defense of suspended congressman Eduardo Cunha (PMDB-RJ) to be the decision was annulled which scheduled the hearings to hear the prosecution witnesses in the criminal case in which the parliamentarian is accused of the crimes of corruption and money laundering.

Last month, Judge Paulo Marcos de Farias, an assistant to Minister Zavascki, ordered the scheduling of hearings for witnesses indicated by the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF). Cunha's lawyers argued that the decision could not have been made by the assistant judge during the court's recess.

“I reject the request made by the defense, concerning the annulment of the decision that scheduled hearings for the testimonies of the witnesses indicated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. There is no legal impediment to the investigating judge – who is in the full exercise of his jurisdictional functions – carrying out investigative acts within his competence, even during the recess period of the Supreme Federal Court,” says Teori’s decision. The order is dated the 10th and was published today (17) in the STF system.

In the decision, the minister recalls that another action by Cunha's defense against the judge, overseen by Minister Roberto Barroso, was also denied.

In the text, Zavascki also points out that with the approaching end of the depositions of the prosecution witnesses, the defense of Cunha and Solange Pereira, who is also a defendant in the case, must take some steps regarding the witnesses they have indicated. The minister requests that the addresses of some of them be provided and that the parliamentarians who have been indicated to testify be notified of the deadline for confirming the date and time of their depositions. The hearings are scheduled for August 30th and 31st and September 1st.

In March of this year, the ministers of the STF (Supreme Federal Court) accepted charges against Cunha and the former federal congresswoman and current mayor of Rio Bonito (RJ), Solange Almeida. Cunha is accused of allegedly receiving bribes in a Petrobras oil rig contract.