The first class of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) made a majority to keep Senator Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR) as a defendant in criminal action for slander against court minister Gilmar Mendes. THE complaint was accepted by the same class in June 2024 which now judges a Moro appeal against the decision.
The rapporteur of the case, Minister Cármen Lúcia, said that the complaint of the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) meets formal prescriptions. In addition, it clarifies that the declaratory embargo appeal aims to remedy any omission, contradiction, obscurity or ambiguity of the request and not modify decision.
“Under the pretext of remedying non-existent addictions, we seek the rediscussion of the judgment by which the complaint against the embargo,” says the minister’s vote.
“The examination of the appeal petition is sufficient to see that it is not intended to provoke the clarification of obscure, omitted or contradictory point or correct material error, but only modify the content of the judgment, to prevail the thesis of the embargo,” he adds.
Cármen Lúcia is still complete: “There is no omission to be remedied in the embargoed judgment, because, different from the alleged by the embargo, the judgment of receipt of the complaint is merely deliberated, never of exhausting cognition. Therefore, the requirements for receiving the complaint with the court of criminal imputation cannot be confused.”
The appeal is being tried in a session of the Virtual Plenaryfrom 3 to 10 October. Ministers Alexandre de Moares and Flávio Dino accompanied the vote of the rapporteur, forming the majority to keep Moro defendant. There is still a remaining vote on the other two ministers of the class, Luiz Fux and Cristiano Zanin.
But with the appeal rejected, the criminal action against the parliamentarian continues.
Act of slander
In April 2023, Sergio Moro was denounced by the then deputy prosecutor of the Republic, Lindôra Araújoafter the emergence of a video on social networks. In the recording, Moro appears in a conversation with unidentified people. During the dialogue, which would have occurred in 2022, Moro said: “No, this is bail, institute to buy a habeas corpus from Gilmar Mendes ”.
At the time, unanimously, the collegiate decided that there is a criminal evidence to justify opening of a criminal action against the senator.
“The willful conduct of the accused consisted of exposing his desire to falsely impute the magistrate of this Federal Supreme Court fact defined as a crime of passive corruption,” said the rapporteur and followed by his peers.
During the trial, lawyer Luiz Felipe Cunha, Moro’s representative, defended the rejection of the complaint and said that the parliamentarian was publicly retracted. For the lawyer, Moro used an unfortunate expression.
“Unfortunate expression recognized by me and him too. In a playful atmosphere, in a June party environment, in an uncertain date, my client made a joke about the eventual purchase of his freedom, if he was arrested in this circumstance of June party play,” said the lawyer.
