STF chief justice: situation of Car Wash probes not analyzed yet

The death of Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki this Thursday (Jan. 19) raised questions about who will take over proceedings arising from Operation Car Wash, which is the country's biggest ever corruption case. Supreme Court (STF) Chief Justice Cármen Lúcia said she does not know yet how proceedings will be taken.

"I have not analyzed anything yet. The pain I feel is human, as I'm sure is the pain felt by every Brazilian person for losing a judge like him," she said.

Cármen Lúcia was in Belo Horizonte when she received the news of Teori Zavascki's death and returned to Brasília in the early evening (19) to follow the case. As soon as she landed, looking dejected, the justice went directly to the Supreme Court headquarters to talk to reporters about the death of the justice, whom she referred to as a "super affectionate, loyal, dignified friend."

During the interview, Cármen Lúcia confirmed that, as requested by his family, the justice's funeral will conducted in Porto Alegre, where his relatives live, and where he built his career.

Operation Car Wash

Born in 1948 in the town of Faxinal dos Guedes, state of Santa Catarina, in a family of Polish and Italian immigrants, Teori Zavascki had been Central Bank's attorney from 1976 to 1989, before becoming member of the bench. From 2003 to 2012, Zavascki sat as justice on the Superior Court of Justice (STJ). And in 2012, he was appointed by then president Dilma Rousseff to occupy the position of Supreme Court justice.

Teori Zavascki was presiding proceedings arising from Operation Car Wash, and his firm positions were always praised. At a crucial moment, he considered “regrettable” that Odebrecht plea bargain testimonies leaked to the press before the documents were sent to the Supreme Court by the Prosecutor General's Office (PGR).

Among his rulings concerning the operation, he had ordered investigations against Senate President Renan Calheiros to be shelved, probes against former lawmaker Eduardo Cunha to be transferred to  Judge Sergio Moro, and the recordings of tapped telephone conversations between former presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff to be annulled. In addition, Zavascki rejected former president Lula's request for investigations against him, which are in the hands of Judge Sergio Moro, to be suspended and referred to the Supreme Court.

At the end of last year, Zavascki notified that he would work during the Court recess to review 77 plea bargain testimonies from executives at Odebrecht that had arrived at the court in December. Now this work has been stopped

Bylaws

Teori Zavascki's death has raised a formal question. Article 38 of the Supreme Court bylaws provides that, upon the death of a justice, proceedings overseen by them shall be inherited by the justice who will fill the vacancy. That is, it would be necessary to wait for a new justice to be appointed by the president of the Republic to replace Zavascki, who would, thus, take over proceedings arising from Operation Car Wash.

However, another section of the bylaws makes exception to some proceedings that could be doomed to failure due to a long wait caused by the absence or vacancy of the justice overseeing the case. In such cases, claims may be reassigned to another justice at the request of the interested party or the Federal Prosecution Service.

In exceptional cases, the Supreme Court chief justice, Cármen Lúcia, has the prerogative to order, at her discretion, other types of process, like inquiries, to be reassigned to other justices. This is exactly the stage through which Car Wash proceedings are passing at the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court legal counsel also raised the possibility, though less likely, that justices could arrange a meeting to change the bylaws and adjust it to the situation. Thus, they stated that it was a hasty conclusion to already define the future of part of the Operation Car Wash, under deliberation at the Court.

*With additional reporting by Líria Jade, from Agência Brasil

Translated by Amarílis Anchieta