Lava Jato: Brazilian Supreme Court annuls all evidence obtained through agreements with Odebrecht

A magistrate of the Brazilian Supreme Court annulled this Wednesday all the evidence obtained through collaboration agreements with the construction company odebrechtwhich affected various politicians and businessmen from Brazil and other countries in the framework of the so-called operation Lava Jato.

The decision was made by the judge Jose Dias Toffoli in response to a request made by the defense of the president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvawho spent 580 days in prison convicted of corruption and money laundering in a process that was later annulled and based in part on evidence offered by Odebrecht.

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In his opinion, the magistrate also orders that entities such as the Attorney General of the Republicthe Legal Office of the Union and the National Council of Justice investigate the responsibility of the public agents involved in entering into the leniency agreement with the construction company.

Toffoli also criticized the terms of the agreement odebrecht and ordered the sending of more information on the indulgence.

According to Toffoli, “the causes that led to the nullity of the evidence obtained from the collaboration agreement entered into by odebrecht they are objective” and are not limited to “subjective universe” of Lula.

The aforementioned agreement was achieved through negotiations in Brazil, USA and Swiss due to suspicions that the construction company handled bribes in the three countries.

However, he explained that there is no request for international legal cooperation to investigate the process. “all, pointing out that they bypassed the formal channels”, which would have been given “outside of the legislation related to the matter”.

According to the magistrate, in addition to direct dealings with the authorities in the North American country and Swissthe judges acted without the “necessary competence” of official entities such as the ministries of Foreign Relations, Justice and Public Security.

For Toffolisaid negotiations resulted in “very serious consequences” for the Brazilian State and for “hundreds of defendants and legal persons in criminal proceedings, proceedings for administrative improbity, electoral processes and civil proceedings throughout the country and also abroad.”

The magistrate’s decision is an extension of a determination given in 2021 by the judge Ricardo Lewandowski (today retired and whose cases Toffoli took over) who declared invalid the evidence related to the cases of Lula obtained in agreement with odebrecht.

The actual brazilian presidentwho in January 2023 assumed his third term after governing the country between 2003 and 2010, was prevented from contesting the 2018 presidential elections because he was politically disabled due to the later annulled conviction.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.