Nominated for the STF, he is the president’s lawyer and helped him to recover his political rights to run for election in 2022
Essential character for the president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) ran for elections in 2022, the lawyer Cristiano Zaninaged 47, will be nominated for the vacancy in the stf (Federal Supreme Court) opened after the minister’s retirement Ricardo Lewandowskion April 11.
In 2020, Zanin filed with the STF the request for habeas corpus which led to annulment of convictions against the president. During the trial, most justices agreed with the defense’s arguments that the accusations no should have been analyzed by the former federal judge in Paraná Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR), until then responsible for the convictions. Today, Moro is a senator of the Republic. The Court ordered that the cases be transferred to the Federal Court in Brasilia.
Born in Piracicaba, in the interior of São Paulo, on November 15, 1975, Zanin will be able to stay in the STF until November 15, 2050, when he will have to retire compulsorily when he turns 75.
Since 2013, Zanin and his wife, lawyer Valeska Teixeira Zanin Martins, have defended Lula. The couple are partners in the office Zanin Martins. Graduated in law by PUC-SP (Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo) in 1999, the lawyer specializes in business and criminal litigation (a legal dispute established after the defendant contests what was presented in the action), both national and transnational.
Zanin and Valeska live in the Jardins region of São Paulo. The law firm they run is in the same neighborhood within easy walking distance.
The now minister appointed to the Supreme Court was a professor of civil law and civil procedural law at the Fadisp (Autonomous Faculty of Law). He is a member of IAB (Institute of Brazilian Lawyers), from the AASP (Association of Lawyers of São Paulo) and the IBA (International Bar Association). He is also an effective member of the Iasp (Institute of Lawyers of São Paulo) and founding member of IBDEE (Brazilian Institute of Business Law and Ethics). He is co-founder of Lawfare Institute.
Before taking office at the STF, the lawyer will have to pass a sabbath by the senators who are part of the CCJ (Commission for Constitution and Justice). Among them, Mora.
The expectation is that the nomination will be approved and that Zanin will then be appointed Minister of the Supreme Court. In history, senators only rejected 5 nominees to the STF, all in 1894, during the government of the then president Floriano Peixoto (1891-1894).
If approved by at least 41 senators, Zanin will occupy the vacancy left by Ricardo Lewandowski, who retired on April 11, one month away from his 75th birthday.
Regarding Lula’s 3 governments, Cristiano Zanin is the 9th nominee by the PT to the STF. Until the end of the mandate, the president will have at least one more nomination, when the minister Rose Weber, current President of the Court, to retire. She will turn 75 on October 2 of this year and will have to leave the Court.
LULA’S BIGGEST VICTORY
Zanin’s profile will always be inextricably linked to the annulment of lawsuits against Lula. That was the only way the PT member recovered his political rights and was able to participate in the last presidential election.
Lula won the election and became President of the Republic for the 3rd time.
Zanin defended the PT during the Lava Jato operation. Target of the task force, Lula was arrested due to processes conducted by Moro in Curitiba (PR). Convictions against the president amounted to almost 30 years, but the petista was imprisoned for 580 days.
Lula was convicted of the crimes of passive corruption and money laundering in the case of the Guarujá triplex, calculated by the Lava Jato operation. The penalty, previously established by Moro at 9 years and 6 months, was increased by the TRF-4 (Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region) for 12 years and 1 month.
At the time, there was an expectation that the sentence could be reduced to 4 to 6 years. However, it came to 2nd conviction Lula, in February 2019, for the case of site in Atibaia (SP). Judge Gabriela Hardt, from the 13th Federal Court of Paraná, added another 12 years and 11 months to the sentence. TRF-4 increased prison time to 17 years, 1 month and 10 days.
squid was released on November 8, 2019, aged 74, after the STF decided that the sentences should begin to be served after the possibilities of appeal had been exhausted. Despite having been released and elected president of the Republic, Lula was not acquitted of all charges. The STF annulled the convictions and ordered the transfer of cases to Brasília.
It turns out that, with this change of Justice in Curitiba to Brasília, there will not be time to try all the actions again. In some cases, the so-called prescription has already occurred, that is, it is no longer possible to impose any punishments on the president.
the indication
Although Zanin was chosen, Lula also considered the lawyer’s name Manuel Carlos de Almeida Neto, 43 years. He was an advisor in Lewandowski’s cabinet from 2006 to 2016 and had the former minister’s seal of approval to succeed him. Currently, he is legal director of CSN (National Steel Company).
Zanin’s nomination, however, considered the current political climate: the considered good relationship between the Lula government and the Senate.
If today’s scenario – still favorable to the Planalto – could be replicated in October, Lula would have the possibility of nominating Manoel Carlos now and leaving Zanin for the next semester, when Minister Rosa Weber turns 75 and will have to leave the Court. But there are no guarantees about what the government’s relationship with Casa Alta will be until then.
Furthermore, one of the main factors for the nomination is the intimacy and trust established between Lula and Zanin. Even knowing the work of Manoel Carlos, nothing surpasses the close relationship between the PT and his lawyer during the 580 days that Lula was imprisoned. For this reason, securing the appointment of the lawyer now is essential for the Chief Executive.
During the process of choosing the president, there was strong pressure from the PT, leftist parties and identity movements for the vacancy to be filled by a woman, preferably black. The only black minister to compose the Court in its 214 years in office was Joaquim Barbosa, retired in 2014.
In March, Minister Edson Fachin made the suggestion publicly, during a session in the physical plenary of the Court.
With Minister Rosa Weber’s mandate ending on October 2, the only woman present among the 11 chairs of the Supreme Court will be Cármen Lúcia. According to the maximum limit for retirement at the Court, of 75 years, the minister will be able to occupy the function until April 2029.
Despite this, Lula got rid of the commitment to nominate a woman to the Supreme Court in recent months. In April, the president defended that the indicated name be a “figure with social sensitivity” It is “highly qualified from a legal point of view”.
On March 2, the president had to publicly defend his lawyer’s name. Said that “everyone would understand” the indication and that Zanin is yours “partner”but denied that this would be a factor considered in the decision.
Despite the indications given by the PT since the beginning of the year, the nomination actually came to be made now, 51 days after retirement by Ricardo Lewandowski. The Minister left the Court a month in advance for reasons “Academics and Professionals”.
Last month, changes in the STF showed that the Court was preparing to appoint Lula’s lawyer. The 1st move was made by minister Dias Toffoli, who, on May 2, requested to President Rosa Weber for his reappointment to the place left by Lewandowski in the 2nd Panel – the collegiate body responsible for judging Lava Jato cases.
This is because Zanin’s move to Lewandowski’s place and, consequently, the legacy of the Lava Jato lawsuits, could indicate impartiality in the judgments of Lula’s lawyer. The maneuver was seen as a way to stop the opposing political class’s concern about Zanin’s possible involvement in the trials.
After that, Minister Edson Fachin it senton May 10, the report of the lawsuit filed by Lula on the exchange of messages between members of the Lava Jato operation to Minister Dias Toffoli.
If approved by the Senate to occupy the Court, Zanin must go to the 1st Panel, and not to the collegiate responsible for Lava Jato actions.
previous indications
Lula has already appointed 9 ministers to the Supreme Court, 8 of which in his first 2 terms: Eros Degree –who stayed on the Court from 2004 to 2010–, Cezar Peluso, Ayres Britto, Joaquim Barbosa, Menezes Law (1942-2009), Ricardo Lewandowski, Carmen Lúcia It is toffoli days.
His appointments, however, did not spare him during the trials of the Lava Jato and Mensalão cases, which involved the current president and his allies.
Cármen Lúcia, nominated by Lula in 2006, chaired the STF from 2016 to 2018 and was responsible for approving the Odebrecht denunciation, which mentioned the name of the current chief executive and the former president Dilma Rousseff (PT).
The minister also voted against the request for habeas corpus presented by Lula in 2018, when he was arrested for corruption and money laundering in the triplex case of the Guarujá. Ricardo Lewandowski and Dias Toffoli were the only ones nominated by Lula who accepted the appeal.
At the time, the PT consulted his allies to define the nominations, especially Márcio Thomaz Bastos (1935-2014), who was his Minister of Justice. This time, the PT’s choice was lonely, as he himself mentioned in March. The president stated, however, that all of his nominees were not allies and that he would make nominations again if he had the same information he had at the time.
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