09/16/2024 – 21:59
Justice Cármen Lúcia, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), requested the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) for an opinion on the appeal filed by Senator Sérgio Moro (União-PR), who is appealing the decision that made him a defendant for slander against Justice Gilmar Mendes. In a video that resonated in April 2023, the former Lava Jato judge suggests that the dean would sell judicial decisions. “No, this is bail, an institution… to buy a habeas corpus from Gilmar Mendes,” said Moro.
The video was recorded before Moro became a senator, but the STF understood that, since the recording was made public during his term in office, the Court would have jurisdiction to judge the case.
In June, the First Chamber of the Supreme Court received the complaint filed by the Attorney General’s Office against Moro and concluded that there were sufficient elements to initiate criminal proceedings. The judgment on the merits will only take place after the so-called evidentiary phase of the case – when witnesses are heard and additional evidence is produced.
The senator’s defense argues that there is no evidence of Moro’s involvement in the release of the video and, last Wednesday, the 11th, filed an appeal to try to reverse the decision.
“We respectfully request that the omission regarding the existence of any evidence, even circumstantial, in the indictment that Senator Sérgio Moro was responsible for or had any involvement in the release of the video on March 14, 2023, or even that he had prior knowledge of it be clarified,” says the petition.
The same argument had already been used by the defense in the Supreme Court. At the time, Moro’s defense classified the speech as “unfortunate” and said “in a jocular environment”, in addition to stating that the senator has “immense respect” for the dean and that he did not accuse him of selling sentences.
Cármen Lúcia stated that the joke “does not authorize the offense of honor” and that it could not “serve as justification” for the crime of slander.
“The defendant’s willful conduct, described by the PGR, consisted of exposing his free and conscious will to falsely impute to a magistrate of this Supreme Court a fact defined as a crime of passive corruption”, argued the minister.
Now, the PGR must comment on the senator’s allegations in the appeal. The minister, who is the rapporteur of the case, did not set a deadline for the response.
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