Brazil's Supreme Court denies request to transfer Eduardo Cunha in the Lava Jato corruption investigation.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Edson Fachin, rapporteur for the Lava Jato case, denied a request made by the defense of former congressman Eduardo Cunha to transfer him from the Pinhais Medical-Penal Complex, in the metropolitan region of Curitiba, to the detention center at the Federal Police headquarters in the capital of Paraná state. Cunha's defense argued that Judge Sérgio Moro was treating the former congressman more harshly and that the move to the Medical-Penal Complex was intended to pressure him into a plea bargain with the Justice system, due to the worse prison conditions.
Felipe Pontes, from Agência Brasil - Justice Edson Fachin, the rapporteur for the Lava Jato case at the Supreme Federal Court (STF), denied a request made by the defense of former congressman Eduardo Cunha to transfer him from the Pinhais Medical-Penal Complex, in the metropolitan region of Curitiba, to the detention center at the Federal Police (PF) headquarters in the capital of Paraná.
Cunha was transferred from the Federal Police jail to the Medical-Penal Complex in December, by order of federal judge Sérgio Moro. In the same ruling, however, the magistrate determined that Léo Pinheiro, former president of the construction company OAS, and João Cláudio Genu, former treasurer of the PP party, should remain at the Federal Police headquarters to facilitate their travel to court hearings and witness statements in investigations.
In the request made to the Supreme Federal Court (STF) to suspend the transfer, Cunha's defense argued that Moro was dispensing harsher treatment to the former congressman and that the move to the Medical-Penal Complex was intended to pressure him into entering into a plea bargain with the Justice system, due to the worse prison conditions.
In denying the suspension of the transfer, Fachin emphasized that, with his mandate revoked by the Chamber of Deputies, Cunha lost the prerogative of being tried in the Supreme Federal Court (STF), meaning the court no longer has jurisdiction to consider the former deputy's requests.