Brazil judge throws out evidence in Odebrecht scandal
A BRAZILIAN Supreme Court judge dealt a new blow to the massive “Car Wash” corruption probe on Wednesday when he excluded all evidence obtained through plea deals with executives of scandal-tainted construction giant Odebrecht.
The ruling marked the latest unravelling of an investigation that at its height felled a host of powerful politicians and executives, including Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a popular former president between 2003 and 2010.
Jailed over the case in 2018, Lula spent 18 months in prison before being released, having his convictions annulled and returning for a new presidential term in January.
Justice Antonio Dias Toffoli - a Lula appointee - wrote in his ruling that the leftist leader’s imprisonment was “one of the worst judicial mistakes in the country’s history.”
In a sweeping ruling, Toffoli wrote that all evidence obtained through confessions under Odebrecht’s 2017 plea agreement with prosecutors on the Car Wash task force was “unusable in any jurisdiction.”
Prosecutors on the massive, now-disbanded Car Wash investigation had accused Odebrecht executives of paying huge bribes for juicy contracts with state-run oil company Petrobras.
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The sprawling scandal, which erupted in 2014, felled a Who’s Who of business executives and political heavyweights across Latin America.
However, leaked communications from the Car Wash investigation later suggested the lead judge on the case, Sergio Moro, had conspired with prosecutors to jail Lula in order to sideline him from the 2018 presidential race.
The Supreme Court annulled Lula’s convictions in 2021 and ruled that Moro - who went on to become justice minister under far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, who won the 2018 race - had acted with bias.
Lula, now 77, went on to defeat Bolsonaro (2019-2022) in presidential elections last year, returning for a third term on Jan 1.
Toffoli, who was appointed to the high court by Lula in 2009, wrote in his ruling that the Car Wash investigation had obtained confessions using “borderline illegal” tactics, with “grave consequences.”
The Car Wash investigation shook Brazilian politics and business to their foundations.
But its legacy was stained by the allegations of bias against Moro and prosecutors, and Lula’s presidential comeback put a symbolic final nail in its coffin. AFP
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