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Brazil Supreme Court Judge Says Lula Deserves Retrial

Reuters

   BRASILIA - A Brazilian Supreme Court justice believes jailed
   ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva deserves a retrial after leaked
   social media conversations appeared to show the judge hearing Brazil's
   largest-ever corruption case collaborated with prosecutors.

   Justice Gilmar Mendes said in an interview with Reuters that the
   so-called Car Wash investigation was a success in battling the
   "metastasis of corruption" in Brazil but it became politicized and
   prosecutors went too far.

   Lula is serving a 12-year prison sentence for taking bribes, and the
   judge who convicted him, Sergio Moro, is now Brazil's justice minister
   in right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro's cabinet.

   Mendes' views could influence other judges on the 11-member Supreme
   Court, which has postponed a politically charged ruling on whether Moro
   was impartial when trying Lula. If it rules he was not, Lula would face
   retrial and could be exonerated. The Bolsonaro government and its
   supporters fiercely oppose any move by the court that could result in
   Lula's freedom.

   Mendes said there are doubts about whether due process was followed in
   Lula's trial and whether he was actually complicit in the huge
   corruption scheme uncovered by Car Wash that involved bribes and
   political kickbacks on contracts with oil company Petrobras and other
   state-run companies.

   "We owe Lula a fair trial," Mendes said in the interview on Thursday in
   his Supreme Court offices.

   Mendes has been a main critic of the excessive use of plea bargains and
   provisional detentions of suspects in the sprawling Car Wash
   investigation that led to the jailing of high-profile politicians and
   construction executives. He has previously been vocal about perceived
   irregularities in the prosecution of Lula.

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