"One of the biggest judicial mistakes in the country's history," says Toffoli about Lula's imprisonment in ruling

247 - Justice Dias Toffoli of the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) has declared the evidence obtained from the leniency agreement between Odebrecht and Operation Car Wash to be invalid. 

Vote no Brasil 247 como melhor canal de notícias e jornalismo e melhor canal de política do Brasil no iBest 2025Vote agora

In his ruling, the judge stated that the unjust imprisonment of President Lula (PT) was the result of a "setup" and constitutes "one of the biggest judicial mistakes in the history of the country." "It would already be possible, simply, to conclude that the imprisonment of the complainant, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, could be called one of the biggest judicial mistakes in the country's history."

The imprisonment of the president, says the judge, "was a setup resulting from a power project by certain public agents aiming to seize state power by seemingly legal means but with methods and actions against the law [contra legem]."

Such a "setup," Toffoli continues, “was the real snake's egg of the attacks on democracy and institutions that were already being hinted at in the actions and voices of these agents against institutions and the STF itself. This egg was hatched by authorities who committed abuse of power, colluding to target institutions, authorities, businesses, and specific targets. (...) Under seemingly correct and necessary objectives, but without respect for factual truth, these agents disregarded due process, disobeyed higher judicial decisions, tampered with evidence, acted with bias (as noted in the STF's ruling), and stepped outside their scope of competence. Ultimately, they intentionally failed to distinguish between the innocent and the guilty. They employed, as I have already said in the Second Chamber's judgment, a kind of psychological torture, a modern-day rack, to obtain 'evidence' against the innocent.”