MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil’s Lava Jato: Recordings questioned impartiality from Sergio Moro and prosecutors in sentencing Lula da Silva

According to The Intercept, private conversations show that Moro suggested Dallagnol change the order of Lava Jato phases, gave tips and clues

The Intercept Brazil investigation media published private conversations between public agents who participated in the Lava Jato operation in Brazil and questioned the impartiality of the investigation, which led to the imprisonment of former President Lula da Silva.

The Intercept, led by the American journalist Glenn Greenwald, to whom the former CIA analyst Edward Snowden revealed the espionage programs of the National Security Agency (NSA), had access to conversations held for years between prosecutors and judges.

The media publishes fragments of dialogues between prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol and former magistrate Sergio Moro, current Minister of Justice of President Jair Bolsonaro and who in 2017 sentenced Lula in the first instance to nine years and six months in prison for receiving an apartment in a beach in Sao Paulo in exchange for political favors to the construction company OAS.

According to The Intercept, the private conversations show that Moro suggested Dallagnol change the order of phases of the Lava Jato operation, gave advice and leads to the prosecutors in charge of the case, which is prohibited by law.

Also, in other conversations, prosecutors from the group investigating Lava Jato in Curitiba, led by Dallagnol, discuss ways to stop an interview that Lula, in prison since April 2018, had given to the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo because it could benefit the party of the Workers (PT) in the elections last October.

In a statement, the Public Ministry of Curitiba (MPF) stressed that the prosecutors are “calm” in terms of the legitimacy of the action, but expressed their “concern with personal security and the control and manipulation of the meaning of the messages.”

Minister Moro considered on his side that in the messages that quote him “there is no abnormality in directing acts as a magistrate, despite being taken out of context and sensationalism.”

“The hacker's vile action invaded phones and applications of prosecutors used for private communication and the interest of work, there being even an identity theft of some of its members,” said a statement sent by the Public Ministry of Curitiba.

After the start of the Lava Jato operation, five years ago, the MPF accused Lula of being the “maximum commander” of a corrupt plot and of receiving an apartment in the São Paulo resort of Guarujá in exchange for favors to OAS, a process by the one that was condemned by Moro and jailed after the penalty to be ratified in second instance.

The former president's defense stressed that the documents released by The Intercept show that the actions of the prosecutors and former judge Sergio Moro had a “political objective”.

“No one can have any doubt that the lawsuits against former President Lula are corrupted by what is most serious in terms of violation of fundamental guarantees and the denial of rights,” said the statement of the lawyers of the comments.

Former presidential candidate Fernando Haddad, who lost last October's election to Bolsonaro, warned on his Twitter account that Brazil “may be facing the biggest institutional scandal in the history of the Republic.”

“Many would be prisoners, processes would have to be annulled and a great farce would be revealed to the world. We will accompany with caution, but we can not stop. Let the truth be investigated! ”Said Haddad.