Justice rules Lula's investigations to pass to Supreme Court

Justice Teori Zavascki, rapporteur in the case of Operation Car Wash in the Supreme Court (STF), ruled Tuesday (Mar. 22) that judge Sérgio Moro, responsible for the operation inquiries in Curitiba, shall immediately send to STF all investigations targeting former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

In his ruling, which upheld a request from the Attorney General's Office (AGU), Zavascki suspended, based on the Court's jurisprudence, the release of tapped telephone conversations involving the presidency and set a ten day-deadline for Sérgio Moro to provide information on the release of audio.

"Although the tapped telephone conversations were apparently targeting people who did not hold offices with jurisdictional prerogative, the content of conversations—whose secrecy was apparently forthwith removed, not providing any legal safeguards—was analyzed outside the competence of the claimed court," said the Supreme Court justice.

According to Zavascki, the arguments raised by AGU related to the release of conversations between President Dilma Rousseff and Lula, disclosed last week after judge Moro's decision, have "relevant grounds". In the action, AGU, on the presidency's behalf, argues that Moro should not have removed the secrecy of conversations. The Supreme Court would have the competence to make the decision.

In his rule, Zavascki dismissed Moro's arguments to release the tapped conversations. "There is no way to accept the release of conversations as it happened, especially involving those who do not even relate to the criminal object," he stated. In the order, the Supreme Court justice pointed out that his decision does not take into account the recordings' content.

* André Richter added to this story.

Translated by Amarílis Anchieta