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Lula rewards the lawyer who got him out of jail with a position as a judge in Brazil's Supreme Court

2023-06-01T19:52:02.509Z

Highlights: Cristiano Zanin defended the Brazilian president in the processes of Operation Car Wash. If the Senate gives its approval he will be a judge in the country's highest court until 2050. Zanin, 47, will occupy one of the 11 seats left vacant by the retirement of another judge last April. His name sounded like the favorite from the beginning, despite the controversy it could generate for personalism and the close bond between Lula and the future judge. The predictable criticism of Lula from the right for the appointment is joined by voices from the left that lament that the president has missed some diversity to a very white and masculine institution.


Cristiano Zanin defended the Brazilian president in the processes of Operation Car Wash and if the Senate gives its approval he will be a judge in the country's highest court until 2050


Cristiano Zanin, left, at an event with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.Europa Press/Contact/Vanessa Carvalho (Europa Press/Contact/Vanessa Ca)

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva decided to reward the lawyer who managed to get him out of jail with a position as a judge in the Federal Supreme Court, Brazil's highest court. Cristiano Zanin, 47, will occupy one of the 11 seats left vacant by the retirement of another judge last April. His name sounded like the favorite from the beginning, despite the controversy it could generate for personalism and the close bond between Lula and the future judge. "Everyone expected me to appoint Zanin, not only because of the role he had in my defense, but simply because I believe that Zanin will become a great judge of the Supreme Court of this country," Lula said Thursday in confirming the appointment. For it to become effective, the lawyer will have to be approved by the Senate, but the procedure is taken for granted. Supreme Court judges compulsorily retire at age 75. Because of his age, Zanin, the youngest of the justices, could be on the Supreme Court until 2050.

Lula's election is a prize for loyalty. When Zanin began to defend him in the processes of Operation Car Wash, lawyers close to the Workers' Party (PT) questioned his competence to deal with such a relevant process, because until then he was better known for his performance in the business world. Zanin always based his defense strategy on the lawfare thesis: Lula was being the victim of a judicial persecution that sought to remove him from power at all costs. That stance cost him confrontations with heavyweights of Brazilian law, such as former Supreme Court judge José Paulo Sepúlveda Pertence, who entered the defense leading a movement that sought to turn Lula's imprisonment in Curitiba into house arrest. Zanin refused, saying the move would weaken the narrative that Lula was innocent. The lawyer even took the conviction against Lula to the UN Human Rights Committee, which agreed that the leader of the left did not have the right to a fair trial and that his political rights were violated. Zanin opted for the epic and eventually his plan paid off. The leak of conversations in which the then judge Sérgio Moro worked side by side with the prosecutors to corner Lula, ended up paving the way for the annulment of the processes.

Placing his personal lawyer in the Supreme Court also has a lot of Lula's personal vendetta against Moro. The judge who sentenced him to nine years in prison for corruption, thus removing him from the 2018 presidential race, dreamed of becoming a Supreme Court magistrate. When he entered as Minister of Justice in the Government of Jair Bolsonaro, that movement was interpreted as a preliminary step for the far-right leader to choose him for the coveted court. The relationship between the two fell apart, Moro was left without his prize and now strives not to lose his political capital entirely from his seat as senator. In the four years in which he was president, Bolsonaro had the opportunity to appoint two Supreme Court judges, and although they are conservative magistrates, they did not have as close a bond with him as Zanin did with Lula. There was some uproar when he promised to appoint a "terribly evangelical" judge to please his religious electorate. He appointed André Mendonça, jurist, Presbyterian pastor and his until then Minister of Justice.

The predictable criticism of Lula from the right for the appointment is joined by voices from the left that lament that the president has missed an opportunity to bring some diversity to a very white and masculine institution. According to a count by the organization Gênero e Número, Zanin will be the 165th white man of a court through which in 132 years 170 magistrates passed. Only 2.4% women, and 2.7% black men. Black women, the nation's largest demographic, never held a seat. Zanin is also criticized because beyond the defense of Lula he is a great unknown. To what extent he will be a progressive judge is anyone's guess. There are hardly any public statements from him that help intuit what he thinks about labor or reproductive rights, for example. In October another vacancy will open and Lula will be able to place another judge. Or judge.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2023-06-01

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