Minister Gilmar Mendes defended, this Wednesday (14), his colleague at the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Alexandre de Moraes, saying that the minister conducts investigations “guided by legality” and respect for individual rights.
According to Gilmar Mendes, comparisons between Moraes’ conduct and the methods of Operation Lava Jato are “irresponsible and without the slightest factual correlation”.
“Here there are no spurious combinations between prosecutor and judge nor orders to prosecutors or delegates to behave in this or that way,” stated Gilmar, in reference to the behavior of former judge Sergio Moro and former prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol.
Wanting to compare the methods of that operation with the way Minister Alexandre conducted the proceedings of this Court are desperate attempts to discredit the STF itself in search of obscure ends related to the impunity of people who perpetrated serious acts of attempted or intentional coup.
Gilmar Mendes
THE CNN sought out Moro and Dallagnol to comment on the statements, but has not yet received a response.
Gilmar Mendes’ statement was made at the beginning of the plenary session of the STF. Before that, the president of the Court, Minister Roberto, also expressed his support for Moraes.
The statements of support were made in response to reports in the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo which indicated that Moraes, as a Supreme Court minister, unofficially ordered the TSE to produce reports to support the investigations.
Gilmar defended the work carried out by Moraes, and said that his colleague’s actions “are not the result of whim or personal purposes – quite the opposite”.
“By conducting the investigations initiated by the Presidency of the STF, the eminent rapporteur performs a relevant institutional duty to investigate serious conduct that, were it not for his diligent conduct, could have resulted in the frustration of the 2022 presidential elections, or, at the limit, in a coup d’état. That is what is being discussed.”
For Gilmar, “it is not new” that Moraes has been the target of “unfounded criticism regarding the conduct of the investigations under his responsibility”.
“It is imperative that, in times of crisis and challenges to our democracy, we distinguish between constructive assessments and attacks that aim to undermine the independence and integrity of the institutions that sustain the Democratic Rule of Law,” he said.
According to Gilmar, since the publication of the content in the report, “sectors critical of the STF’s actions in combating fake news, in defending democracy and the fairness of elections have rekindled and insisted on already known and long-rejected treason in trials promoted” by the Supreme Court.
PGR
Attorney General Paulo Gonet also spoke out in defense of Moraes.
He said that he “associates” himself with the statements made by Gilmar and the president of the Court, Luís Roberto Barroso, “in all its terms”.
“Where the intervention of the Attorney General’s Office or the Electoral Attorney General’s Office was appropriate in the cases under the report of Minister Alexandre de Moraes, there was an opportunity for the Public Prosecutor’s Office to act,” he stated.
“I can add that on these and many other occasions I was able to personally verify, both in my work with the TSE and here at the STF, the marks that Minister Gilmar Mendes mentioned and that Your Excellency [ministro Barroso] He also stated the signs of courage, diligence, assertiveness and rectitude in the statements, decisions and in the way Minister Alexandre de Moraes conducted the process”.
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Source: CNN Brasil
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