Brasilia: The defense of former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva obtained an important victory in court, which ordered the sector ministry to inform them about the probable cooperation between the Lava Jato operation and US authorities, Prensa Latina publishes.
According to journalist Gabriel Mascarenhas, from the Radar section of Veja magazine, by 15 votes to zero the Special Court of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) ordered the Justice and Public Security portfolio to inform Lula about the alleged illegal collaboration.
The special court also ruled that the first section, and not the third as the government of President Jair Bolsonaro wanted, should be the judge of the former metallurgical leader’s order against the case.
The ex-president’s legal team wants to agree to such requests for cooperation made, alone or reciprocally, between Brazilian and North American authorities, focusing on actions of Lava Jato.
A decision issued in August by Judge Sergio Kukina, of the STJ, was taken at the request of the former labor leader’s jurists, who denounced that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI, United States) acted, without respecting the procedures, to break the cryptography of the system of the construction company Odebrecht.
The request for information refers to six criminal actions in Lava Jato against the founder of the Workers’ Party.
Kukina considered that the information is essential to confirm whether the federal government was warned of the alleged collaboration between Lava Jato and the FBI.
According to the defense, the deals involved the help of the northern intelligence agency for prosecutors to break the key to the Odebrecht contractor’s bribery payment system.
The ex-president’s representatives maintain that there is a suspicion that this occurred without the standard procedure, defined in international treaties.
The Ministry of Justice denied the defense access to information, claiming that the proceedings cannot be shared because they are subject to confidentiality.
However, Kukina argued that it is legitimate for lawyers to request directly from public and private entities relevant information for the defense strategy.
He insisted that there are no impediments for the Department of Asset Recovery and International Legal Cooperation to report on the existence of suspicious requests for cooperation.
For Lula, Lava Jato legalized corruption in Brazil and fulfilled an agenda that responded to the economic and geopolitical interests of the United States.