Débora Zampier        Reporter Agencia Brasil

Brasilia – Defense lawyers for former minister José Dirceu have sent a new defense brief (“memorial de defesa”) to Supreme Court justices. The document contains harsh criticism of the Federal Prosecution Office (“Procuradoria-Geral da República – PGR”) and complains about the way the trial is being run.

The trial is known as “mensalão,” literally the big monthly allowance, in reference to the charge that more or less regular (monthly) bribes were paid to members of Congress so they would vote with the government during the first part of the first Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva adminstration (2003-05) when José Dirceu was the presidential Chief of Staff (“ministro-chefe da Casa Civil”).

The defense brief was a response to a brief issued by the PGR after the trial had started. In it defense lawyers, José Luís Oliveira Lima and Rodrigo Dall’Acqua, denounce the prosecutor for emitting a brief during the trial, pointing out that it is unusual to do so and demonstrated a “…clear obsession by the prosecution to offend due process and adversarial proceedings. It shows that the prosecution is unsure of the consistency of its own case.” They also charged that evidence in favor of Dirceu was being disregarded, claiming that the PGR “… pretends to be blind so they can avoid dealing with numerous direct witnesses,” who could testify in favor of their client.

Asked to comment on the defense brief, the chief federal prosecutor (“procurador-chefe da República”), Roberto Gurgel, responded that the defense had good eyesight, “at least when they are wearing their glasses.” As for the PGR case, Gurgel said there were no blind spots in it and that all the evidence had been analyzed very carefully.

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English

Link - Defesa de José Dirceu chama procuradoria de “cega” em documento a ministros do STF