Brazilian Justice Minister Denies Plotting to Send Lula to Jail
By Sinikka Tarvainen, dpa
HAVANA TIMES – Brazilian Justice Minister Sergio Moro on Wednesday denied allegations that he cooperated with prosecutors to jail former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva while he worked as a judge handling the case.
It was normal for judges to discuss cases with prosecutors, Moro said, alleging that the evidence against him was obtained by hackers trying to overturn corruption convictions.
Moro appeared before a Senate justice commission following the publication of text messages that he allegedly exchanged with prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol.
According to the website The Intercept Brazil, which published the messages, they “reveal that Moro offered strategic advice to prosecutors and passed on tips for new avenues of investigation.”
Moro said he could not confirm that he had written the text messages as published, but in any case denied any wrongdoing.
“I am absolutely at ease about my conduct as a judge. There has been impartial application of the law in serious cases of corruption and money laundering,” the Brazilian daily Folha de Sao Paulo quoted him as saying.
Lula started serving a 12-year prison sentence in April 2018 on corruption charges. An appeals court later reduced the sentence to eight years and 10 months.
The allegations against Moro prompted Lula’s lawyers to request his conviction be thrown out and Lula released. The Supreme Court is due to handle the request next Tuesday.
Lula’s imprisonment prevented him from contesting last year’s presidential elections, which he had been expected to win, and opened the way for far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who was sworn in as president on January 1.
Bolsonaro then made Moro his justice minister. But he has now refrained from giving the ex-judge his unconditional support.
“I do not know the particulars of Moro’s life, I do not go to his house, he does not go to my house,” Folha de Sao Paulo quoted Bolsonaro as saying.
Nobody is questioning what the hachers did! Nobody is questioning MrGlenn Greenwald! They commited a crime and should be punished. Greenwald has ties to leftist political parties, like the one his “husband”, David Miranda belongs to. Greenwald is unashamed supportive of ex-president Lula da Silva and his journalism is nothing else than “PT, PSOL, militância”.
MR GREENWALD = enemy of Brazil
Minister Moro has nothing to fear! Brazil is with him. This may be the first time in our history we see justice being done! Lava Jato will go on! VIVA SERGIO MORO!DAILYGRACE
You are absolutely right! Could not agree more!
The Brazilean experience shows how the more backwards sectors in Latin America are not just link with criminals, but the movilization of the once independent judicial power to control politics is generating the crisis of democracy and redifining the notion of politics in favour of the most conservative, ignorant a new power grups in society. They are trying to mantein social and political inequality in a denial of Latno american reality. How is this period finish? It is a real worrying reality.
MORO has acted in biased manner. He has actually acted as a agent of the prosecution and given verdict based not on evidence but according to his political animosity.
MORO should be in jail. Lula should be president. ?
The idea that Lula would win if not in jail is absurd. It treats Brazilians as complete stupids that, having their candidate removed from the elections, rushed to vote in his exact opposite. The polls that said Lula would win were flawed, biased, purchased by special interests. Any Brazilian knows that.
Go to Brazil, talk to real, hardworking Brazilians, and then you’ll see what people think about Lula, Bolsonaro and Sergio Moro. It is very different from what you see in the press, where Lula is a saint, and Bolsonaro a live devil.
Moro was the first judge in Brazil to dare send rich, powerful, white criminals to jail. Before him, only the poor and black went to jail in my country.
Unfortunately, You aren’t a good journalists. Incapable to see the truth. This man received the opportunity to make a difference for all country, but never had a project to do it. Just projects to have power. Then we live the worst crises in our history. He is just a pathetic man.