Globo: Lava Jato operation in danger during Supreme Court trial.
If the Court, in an upcoming trial, reverses its decision that sentences begin to be served after appeals to the second instance, Operation Lava Jato will be undermined, according to the newspaper owned by the Marinho brothers; “Because the concrete possibility of sentences beginning to be served after appeals to the second instance has encouraged plea bargains. It is said that this has even increased the number of arrests ordered by Judge Moro. The most serious thing is that, if the Supreme Court backs down, the “pact” or “deal,” mentioned in Machado's recordings, to end Lava Jato will gain credibility. And Dilma and the PT will celebrate,” it says.
247 - According to the newspaper Globo, if the Court, in an upcoming trial, reverses its decision that sentences begin to be served after an appeal to the second instance, Operation Lava Jato will be undermined.
"Because the concrete possibility of sentences beginning to be served after appeals to the second instance has encouraged plea bargains. It is said that this has even increased the number of arrests ordered by Judge Moro. The most serious aspect is that, if the Supreme Court backs down, the 'pact' or 'deal' mentioned in Machado's recordings to end Lava Jato will gain the appearance of truth. And Dilma and the PT will celebrate," the editorial states.
Read below:
Lava Jato operation in danger during Supreme Court trial.
If the Court, in an upcoming trial, reverses its decision that sentences begin to be served after an appeal to the second instance, the Operation will be undermined.
Even though it has faded from the news, the central issue that emerges from the conversations recorded by the former president of Transpetro, Sérgio Machado, with high-ranking figures from the PMDB party—the president of the Senate, Renan Calheiros (AL), his colleague Romero Jucá (RR), both included in Lava-Jato investigations, and former president José Sarney—continues to reverberate.
This refers to the climate of conspiracy surrounding some dialogues captured by Machado, in which the opposition to the task force of prosecutors, delegates, and agents of the Federal Police, created around the first-instance federal judge Sérgio Moro, becomes evident. This task force, operating from Curitiba since 2014, has been uncovering and dismantling the largest corruption scheme ever recorded in the country's history.
Brazil's Attorney General, Rodrigo Janot, has decided to request the Supreme Court to arrest Renan, Jucá, and Sarney—and also Cunha, for continuing his maneuvers in the Chamber of Deputies in self-defense. It is unknown whether Janot has further information about the actions of the senators and the former president against Lava Jato. Meanwhile, there is debate about whether the fact that the president of the Senate and Congress, a powerful senator in the interim government (to the point of having been a minister in it), and a former president, an influential politician, expressed opinions against Lava Jato can be understood as obstruction of justice or as an exchange of opinions, guaranteed by freedom of expression. The decision of Minister Teori Zavascki, responsible for Lava Jato at the Supreme Court, to whom Janot submitted the request, is awaited.
The issue will grow in the coming days, also because a Supreme Court hearing is scheduled for next Wednesday, the 22nd, on a topic which, according to Machado's tapes, worries the PMDB members and, moreover, is entirely covered by Lava-Jato: the decision taken by the Supreme Court, in the judgment of a habeas corpus request, that sentences begin to be served upon their confirmation in the second instance, incidentally one of the proposals of the Lava-Jato prosecutors to make the fight against corruption by the State more effective.
Because on that day the Court will judge actions for declaration of unconstitutionality (Adins) filed against that Supreme Court decision by the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) and the National Ecological Party (PEN).
As reported on the GLOBO website, this ruling is already fueling speculation. Some fear that the Court will backtrack on that verdict, while others assert the opposite: the ruling would be used by the Supreme Court to clear up any doubts about the judgment and extend that understanding—a powerful weapon against corruption—to all cases, not just those dealing with habeas corpus petitions.
So be it, because the concrete possibility of sentences beginning to be served after appeals to the second instance has encouraged plea bargains. It is said that this has even increased the number of arrests ordered by Judge Moro. In fact, the vast majority of plea bargains have been signed while the accused are at liberty.
The most serious issue is that, if the Supreme Court backs down, the "pact" or "deal" mentioned in Machado's recordings to end Lava Jato will gain the appearance of truth. And Dilma and the PT will celebrate.