Judge Marcello Rubioli, of the 1st Specialized Criminal Court of the Court of Justice of Rio de Janeiro, annulled the plea bargain of former president of Fecomercio-RJ Orlando Diniz and extinguished the criminal action against major law firms in the country.
In a decision, this Monday (5), the magistrate said that there is no evidence of crimes committed against lawyers and stated that there was “a clear idea of criminalizing the practice of law”.
When annulling Diniz’s accusation, Rubioli used the 2017 decision of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), that the discovery of illegalities after the approval of an agreement can lead to its termination. For the magistrate, in Diniz’s plea, “there was an induction of the collaborator by the extinct task force of the Federal Public Ministry for the Lava Jato operation”.
The judge understood that prosecutors were unable to prove the version that law firms were used to lobby and influence decisions in higher courts in exchange for a bribe.
He also stated that the attorney services were not provided by the lawyers, as reported by the whistleblower: “It is urgent to recognize the absence of just cause for the prosecution of the facts narrated”, he wrote in his decision.
“From everything that is in the file, nothing more than the narrative of an association of lawyers who protected the legal strategies of pretension of the then President of Sesc/Senac-RJ”, maintained the magistrate.
THE CNN contacted the press office of the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), requested a position and awaits a response.
The decision benefits around 20 people, including lawyers Cristiano Zanin, of former President Lula; Frederick Wassef, attorney for President Jair Bolsonaro; and Ana Tereza Basílio, who defended the former governor of Rio Wilson Witzel.
In a note, lawyer Cristiano Zanin, one of the targets of the investigation at the time, said that the decision of the Justice of Rio “definitely rescues the dignity of the law by putting an end to the persecution practiced by the “lava jato” against me and against several fellow lawyers who provided legal services to Fecomercio-RJ during the intense litigation that the private entity had with its counterpart CNC. It is yet another important act to rescue the credibility of Justice after several attacks committed by impolite and delusional public agents who acted under the nickname of “jet wash”.
Operation Schema S, launched in September 2020, was one of the last developments investigated by Lava Jato prosecutors in Rio de Janeiro, before the end of the task force. The complaint to Justice and supported by the prosecutors of Lava-Jato do Rio alleges an alleged scheme that would have diverted at least R$ 151 million from the S fluminense System (Sesc-RJ, Senac-RJ and Fecomércio-RJ), between 2012 and 2018, through fictitious contracts with law firms.
The denunciation of the former president of Fecomercio-RJ was approved by the judge of the 7th Federal Criminal Court of Rio de Janeiro, Marcelo Bretas. The STF annulled all the actions of Operation E$quema S in August 2021 and ordered the remittance of the cases to the Justice of Rio, which in this Monday’s decision, annulled the entire agreement.
Source: CNN Brasil
