| Where Do You Turn When the Anti-Corruption Crusaders Are Dirty?

"According to material published by the news site The Intercept Brasil, over the course of the investigation, Mr. Moro meddled in matters of press coverage and worried about how to get the public’s support for the prosecution. “What do you think of these crazy statements from the PT national board? Should we officially rebut?” he once asked federal prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol, referring to a statement by Mr. da Silva’s Workers’ Party in which the indictment was deemed a political persecution. Notice the use of the word “we” — as if Mr. Moro and Mr. Dallagnol are on the same team.

This is all, of course, highly immoral — if not downright illegal. It violates nothing less than the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which says: “Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.” Under Brazil’s Criminal Procedure Code, judges are supposed to be neutral arbiters and cannot give advice to any of the parties in a case. Mr. Moro also violated many provisions of the Brazilian Code of Judicial Ethics, particularly one that says the judge should maintain “an equivalent distance from the parties,” avoiding any kind of behavior that may reflect “favoritism, predisposition or preconception.”!

article by Vanessa Barbara​


Opinion | Where Do You Turn When the Anti-Corruption Crusaders Are Dirty? - The New York Times