Supreme Court Dean Gilmar Mendes reaffirms Lula's innocence.
The minister suspended the collection of R$ 18 million by a public prosecutor. Mendes stated that the prosecutor demonstrated "intellectual weakness" by denying the innocence of the Workers' Party member.
247 - Dean of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Minister Gilmar Mendes reaffirmed the innocence of former President Lula (PT) by suspending on Tuesday (28) a charge of R$ 18 million made by the Public Treasury Attorney Daniel Wagner Gamboa against the PT member.
Gamboa based his claim on evidence from Lava Jato, stating that the annulment of the task force's proceedings against Lula did not exonerate him nor invalidate any acts of the operation.
In his decision, Mendes explained that any Brazilian citizen who is not convicted is, in fact, innocent. The minister further stated that the prosecutor demonstrates "intellectual weakness" in denying this fact. "The distinction between 'irregular sentence' and 'innocence,' drawn by the reckless legal expert, is clearly frivolous. This statement by the National Treasury Prosecutor, partially endorsed by the challenged act, displays clear monstrous contours and a certain ideological bias. It does not, rather, demonstrate some intellectual weakness, by disregarding something that is known to any third-semester law student: in the absence of a criminal conviction, any citizen retains the status of innocence."
The minister stated that the prosecutor used illegally obtained evidence to collect the debt and engaged in abusive conduct. "The new Law on Abuse of Authority (Law 13.869/2019), in its article 25, sole paragraph, criminalized the action of a public agent who uses evidence obtained through illegal means, to the detriment of an investigated or audited party, with prior knowledge of its flaws."
According to the minister, the prosecutor's actions require "the immediate intervention of the Judiciary, not only to preserve the authority of the Supreme Federal Court's decisions, but also to reaffirm the rights and guarantees that form the backbone of the Democratic Rule of Law."
Speaking to Poder 360, Lula's defense lawyer, Cristiano Zanin Martins, celebrated: "This is yet another illegal offshoot of 'Lava Jato' that we managed to dismantle, now in the tax area."
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