As former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s defense attorneys, we received today (October 26, 2016) a document issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights informing that the individual communication presented on July 28, 2016 on behalf of Lula has undergone a preliminary admissibility evaluation and was registered before the agency. The same document informs that the Brazilian government, also on this date, received a request to present “information or observations relevant to the issue of admissibility of the communication” within two months.
The communication filed in July contained a list of several violations to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which is adopted by the UN, committed by Judge Sergio Moro and by Operation Car Wash Federal Attorneys against Lula.
Said Covenant ensures, among other things: (a) protection against arbitrary arrest or detention (Article 9); (b) the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law (Article 14); (c) protection against arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, or against unlawful attacks on his honor and reputation (Article 17); and, in addition, (d) the right to an impartial and independent court (Article 14).
The petition requests the Council to address the arbitrary acts committed by Judge Sergio Moro against Lula, his relatives, collaborators, and attorneys. The pieces of evidence presented in the petition are related to, among other things: (i) the fact that Lula was taken into custody for over 6 hours on March 6, 2016 through a bench warrant issued without legal provision; (ii) the leaking of confidential material to the press and the making public of wire tapped telephone conversations; (iii) the various provisional measures authorized with no justification; and, also, (iv) the fact that Moro assumed in a document sent to the Federal Supreme Court, on March 29th, 2016, his role of accuser, attributing to Lula the authorship of crimes twelve times, in addition to expressing anticipated value-judgment on subject matter that is yet to be trialed.
The petition includes precedents of the UN Human Rights Committee and of other International Courts, which show that, according to international law, since Judge Moro has committed a series of unlawful actions against Lula, his relatives, collaborators, and attorneys, he has irreparably lost his impartiality to trial the former President.
We have taken another step towards protecting the former President’s fundamental guarantees with the registering of our communication by the UN. The date is emblematic because today we met in Boston with Harvard University specialists to discuss the lawfare phenomenon. It is especially important to know that, from now on, the UN will be formally following the serious violations that are daily committed against Lula in Brazil.
Cristiano Zanin Martins
It seems appropriate to remember the content of Lula’s Communication submitted to the UN Human Rights Committee in July:
