Minister Gilmar Mendes, of the (Supreme Federal Court), requested a highlight this Monday (10) to bring to the in-person plenary session of the Second Panel the judgment of an appeal by Renato Duque, former director of services at , against all the acts of the task force at and the former judge.
The case was being analyzed in the virtual plenary, a system in which ministers cast their votes without debates. Started on the 31st, the session would end this Monday.
Rapporteur of the action, Toffoli had initially voted against Duque’s request, but backed down after, according to him, analyzing Duque’s vote. The two took a stand to annul the convictions and, consequently, get the former Petrobras director out of jail.
Next, differing from Gilmar and Toffoli, Kassio Nunes Marques and André Mendonça voted. All that was missing was the vote of , a supporter of Lava Jato. Gilmar, however, interrupted the analysis. There is still no date for the resumption of the trial.
In his vote, the dean of the STF states that “there is no doubt regarding the improper use of illicit evidence, obtained from foreign authorities outside of official channels” in the actions against Duque.
He mentions conversations about the Spoofing operation, with the exchange of messages between members of Lava Jato, including former prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol.
In them, the then prosecutor says he will use Duque’s data in Monaco to support the arrest request before receiving the information through official international cooperation channels.
Gilmar also states in his vote that Duque was a “political target” of the task force. “This is yet another defendant who was subjected, in the same actions and processes, to the identical illegal, abusive and corrosive procedures of the guarantees of due legal process, the natural judge and the impartiality required in any and all trials,” he said.
The minister also added that Duque is described in the complaints as “a liaison and a person with the strict confidence of politicians and members of the highest leadership of the Workers’ Party” and, because of this link, “he became the object of abusive measures”,
Duque was one of the main targets of the operation and also one of its longest-serving prisoners. Last year, a federal judge in Paraná ordered him to return to prison because he still had to serve a custodial sentence of 39 years, 2 months and 20 days, in a closed regime.
This penalty referred to four convictions that have already become final, that is, when there is no longer any possibility of appeal, and involves crimes of passive and money laundering. This year, he progressed to the semi-open regime.
When adjusting his vote to annul the acts against Duque, Toffoli also ordered the revocation of the decision that ordered the arrest last year.
Duque had two other stints in prison: between November and December 2014; and from March 2015 until March 2020. Afterwards, he used an electronic ankle bracelet until April 2023.
During his prison term, he proposed and agreed to give up R$100 million in foreign accounts. Also
Since 2023, Toffoli has been making decisions that annul acts of the operation. Two former presidents of construction companies who signed a statement benefited from this type of decision: Léo Pinheiro, from the former OAS (currently Metha), and Marcelo Odebrecht.
The money changer and the former minister also benefited.
