Pimenta denounces 'Curitiba connection' to undermine Lula.
"Everyone knows about Judge Sérgio Moro's connection to Curitiba, as well as the Lava Jato investigators and prosecutors' ties to the capital of Paraná. However, what almost no one knows is that the members of the higher courts of the Judiciary who will judge Moro's decisions against Lula are also all from Curitiba and from circles close to the magistrate who is persecuting the former president," said the congressman.
RS 247 – In an interview with 247, this Friday (22), federal deputy Paulo Pimenta (PT-RS) denounced a scheme in the Brazilian Judiciary to condemn former President Lula and prevent him from running in the 2018 elections. What for some could be seen as just a “simple coincidence” is classified by Pimenta as “Curitiba Connection”.
"Everyone knows about Judge Sérgio Moro's connection to Curitiba, as well as the Lava Jato investigators and prosecutors' ties to the capital of Paraná. However, what almost no one knows is that the members of the higher courts of the Judiciary who will judge Moro's decisions against Lula are also all from Curitiba and from circles close to the magistrate who is persecuting the former president," said the congressman.
According to Pimenta, the judge of the Federal Regional Court of the 4th region, João Pedro Gebran Neto, responsible for judging appeals of people convicted in the first instance in Lava Jato, is a native of Curitiba, where he graduated and made his career in the legal field. At the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), the rapporteur for the Lava Jato cases is Minister Felix Fischer, who also has strong ties to Curitiba and the surrounding region, where he was a professor at various law universities throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s until being appointed by Fernando Henrique Cardoso (PSDB) to the position of minister in the STJ.
The curious thing is that Félix Fischer was not the rapporteur for the Lava Jato cases at the STJ, which were under the responsibility of Minister Marcelo Navarro. But in December 2015, the rapporteurship was taken from Navarro and given to Félix Fischer due to a procedural rule of the STJ. Yesterday (21), Felix Fischer denied Lula's defense appeal requesting the disqualification of Judge Sérgio Moro, contradicting the opinion of Judge Aurea Maria Etelvina Nogueira Lustosa Pierre.
Finally, Pimenta points out that the rapporteur for Lava Jato at the Supreme Federal Court is Minister Edson Fachin, a law graduate from the Federal University of Paraná. Just as happened at the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), Fachin was not the rapporteur for the Lava Jato cases at the Supreme Court. He only assumed the role after the death of Teori Zavascki, in a maneuver by the Supreme Court itself, as Congressman Paulo Pimenta explains. “Fachin was on the first panel, and the panel responsible for analyzing Lava Jato at the Supreme Court was the second panel. Fachin was then transferred from the first to the second panel, and 'coincidentally' he was the one chosen to be the rapporteur for Lava Jato,” Pimenta recalls.
According to Pimenta, the "Fachin" episode closes the cycle of the "Curitiba Connection," which, according to him, was strategically orchestrated to remove Lula from the 2018 elections. "These are not coincidences; they are evidence that a rearrangement within the Judiciary is being carried out. These personal and professional relationships that intertwine between Judge Sérgio Moro, Judge Gebran Neto, and Ministers Félix Fischer and Edson Fachin border on the repugnant, while, on the other hand, revealing the risks to Brazilian law from the decisions that will be made and ratified, since, it seems, they will not be based on evidence or laws, but much more on the loyalty of a 'brotherhood of friends' within this Curitiba Connection," denounced Pimenta.
Check out the first part of the interview:
Check out the second part of the interview: