Former Lava Jato judge faces lawsuit in the STF in which he is accused of slander against Minister Gilmar Mendes
Minister Alexandre de Moraes, president of the 1st Chamber of STF (Supreme Federal Court), it sent a letter this Tuesday (10.Sep.2024) to the President of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), in which he communicates the decision that made the senator Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR), former Lava-Jato judge, defendant in a slander lawsuit against Minister Gilmar Mendes.
In the document, Moraes details to Pacheco the unanimous decision taken by the 1st Panel in June and includes the full ruling.
The accusation against Moro came later that he suggested “buy a habeas corpus from Gilmar”in reference to Gilmar Mendes. The moment was recorded on video and shared on social media.
At the trial, Luís Felipe Cunha, who defends the senator, stated that Moro’s statements were a “June party joke”.
“At no time did my client accuse Gilmar Mendes of selling sentences.”
The defense also stated that there was a violation of the Article 41 of the Code of Criminal Procedure –which determines that a complaint must expose the criminal act in all its circumstances. In the decision of the PGR (Attorney General’s Office) to report Moro, they mention that the statements were made on an “uncertain date, time and place”.
Understand the case
In early 2023, a video in which Moro mocks STF minister Gilmar Mendes went viral on social media. In the recording, the senator suggests buying a “Gilmar Mendes’ habeas corpus”.
The video clip shows Moro responding to a female voice that says: “You are bribing the old man”. The former judge then responds: “No, this is bail. Institute. To buy… to buy a habeas corpus from Gilmar Mendes”. After the repercussion, his advisors said that the speech was taken out of context.
Watch (18s):
Gilmar countered
At the time the video went viral, the Supreme Court minister responded to the senator saying he didn’t know if he had “pity or horror” of Moro and that the congressman had lost the “sense of the ridiculous” with their statements.
Shortly after the video was released, the MPF (Federal Public Ministry) filed a complaint against Moro because of the episode.
According to the deputy attorney general of the Republic, Lindôra Araújo, the senator “slandered” the Supreme Court minister, “falsely accusing him of the crime of passive corruption”. Read the full (PDF – 154 kB).
“By falsely attributing the practice of the crime of passive corruption to the Minister of the Federal Supreme Court Gilmar Ferreira Mendes, the defendant Sergio Fernando Moro acted with the clear intention of tarnishing the image and objective honor of the offended party, trying to discredit his performance as a magistrate of the highest Court in the country”he said.
The request further states that Moro issued the statement in public, in the presence of several people, with the knowledge that he was being recorded by a third party, which facilitated the widespread dissemination of the video.
At the time, Moro released a note saying “repudiate the complaint” which, according to him, was presented by the PGR in a way “hasty” and “baseless”.
According to the complaint filed, the PGR is requesting a value be set to compensate for the damages caused to the minister and, if sentenced to a sentence of more than 4 years, Moro could lose his mandate as senator.
Recently, Moro faced another trial, this time at the TSE (Superior Electoral Court), which could revoke his mandate in the Legislature.
However, the Electoral Court decided to free the senator from the accusations of slush funds, abuse of economic power, improper use of the media and irregularities in contracts.
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