Rousseff appoints new justice minister

President Dilma Rousseff has replaced the Minister of Justice, Wellington Silva, who took over earlier this month. She has appointed the deputy prosecutor-general Eugênio José Guilherme de Aragão.

Last week, the Supreme Court (STF) ruled that Silva could no longer continue as justice minister while retaining office as a state prosecutor at the State Prosecution Office of Bahia, prompting his resignation.

The new justice minister is 56 years old. Born in Rio de Janeiro, he holds a doctor's degree in Law from Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany, and is a professor at the University of Brasília. While he is a member of the Federal Prosecution Office, he is still eligible to hold office as Minister of Justice because he joined prosecuting office in 1987, before the enactment of the 1988 Constitution that prohibited prosecutors from taking office at other government branches through leaves of absence, i.e. without resigning from their prosecuting office.

According to the National Association of Federal Prosecutors and the National Association of Prosecution Officers, Eugênio Aragão “has all the qualifications to meet the responsibilities of a minister and will certainly be able to carry out his duties effectively and with sound judgment.”

Translated by Mayra Borges