MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilian Justice warns government should not interfere in trials and recommends transparency

“It is not appropriate for me to speak since I don't yet know all the details, but in matters of the justice system there should be no interference by the government”

Brazilian federal judge hearing the Petrobras case, Sergio Moro, avoided commenting Monday on the voice recording in which a minister of acting-President Michel Temer suggests ways to end the investigation into corruption at the state-run oil company Petrobras, but warned that the government should not interfere in trials, which are the responsibility of the justice system.

 “It is not appropriate for me to speak of this because I don't yet know all the details, but in matters of the justice system there should be no interference by the government,” Moro said about the controversial audio that has tarnished the reputation of new Planning Minister Romero Juca, under investigation in the case of funds being diverted from Petrobras.

In the conversation, recorded last March when Juca was a senator and one of those seeking the impeachment and suspension from office of Dilma Rousseff, the now-minister suggests that a businessman also charged with corruption reach an agreement to stop the investigation into the oil company.

Moro, who was a speaker at the forum organized Monday in Sao Paulo by Veja magazine, recommended that the new government, headed by acting-President Michel Temer, pursue a policy of transparency in order to combat corruption and noted the “fundamental” role of the private sector in that process.

“There are hopes that Brazilian society and institutions as a whole will take advantage of this moment to establish more enduring policies against systemic corruption,” he said.