Leaked chats appear to show judge advised prosecutors in Lula case

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BRASILIA (Reuters) - Leaked personal messages published on Saturday by a news website show the judge who led the corruption trial that jailed former Brazil president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva advised prosecutors to influence public opinion against the leftist leader.

FILE PHOTO: Brazil's Justice Minister Sergio Moro speaks during a session of the Public Security commission at the National Congress in Brasilia, Brazil May 8, 2019. REUTERS/Adriano Machado/File Photo

The Intercept posted what it said were social media chats from then judge Sergio Moro to the prosecution team, suggesting prosecutors make a public statement playing up what Moro said were contradictions in Lula’s testimony to undermine his claim to be a victim of political persecution.

The exchange occurred after Lula’s May 10, 2017 deposition against charges that he took a beachside luxury apartment as a bribe. Lula left the court room to tell supporters that he was being “massacred” and was preparing to run for president again.

Moro, who is now Brazil’s justice minister, questioned the authenticity of the messages and said he would not comment on texts obtained by hackers.

“The supposed material, obtained in a criminal way, must be presented to an independent authority so that its integrity can be certified,” he said in a statement.

The texts copied off the Telegram messaging app appear to show Moro suggesting to prosecutors that they mount a public campaign against the man he was judging, and The Intercept said they raised doubts about Moro’s impartiality in the trial that led to a 12-year prison sentence for Lula.

“Maybe tomorrow you should write a statement clarifying the contradictions between (Lula’s) deposition and the rest of the proof and his previous statement,” the judge wrote to prosecutor Carlos dos Santos Lima on the corruption investigation.

Lula’s lawyers have long argued that Moro was a politically motivated judge who wanted to jail their client to block him from running for the presidency last year, when opinion polls showed him easily leading the race, even after he had been jailed.

In an interview published on Friday, Moro told the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper that he was not worried that the corruption conviction against Lula would be overturned, which legal experts including the Brazilian Bar Association and some Supreme Court Justices have said could happen.

The Intercept has published stories based on what it said was an “enormous trove” of messages received from an anonymous source containing exchanges between prosecutors, Moro and others involved in the investigation and prosecution of the “Car Wash” corruption probe.

Considered the world’s largest graft investigation, it has uncovered billions of dollars of bribes paid in schemes mostly involving sweetheart contracts at state-run firms. It has brought down hundreds of members of the business and political elite in Brazil and across Latin America.

Moro told the newspaper he did not think there was anything illegal in his chats with prosecutors and insisted that Lula’s case “was decided with absolute impartiality based on proof without any type of influence.”

Moro was picked for justice minister by right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, who won the presidency after Lula was barred from running because of his conviction.

Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Daniel Wallis

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Mali president visits Dogon village where dozens killed

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BAMAKO (Reuters) - President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali on Thursday visited the site of an ethnic massacre in central Mali in which gunmen killed dozens of people, vowing once again to crack down on spiraling insecurity.

Attackers believed to belong to the Fulani ethnic group raided the ethnic Dogon village of Sobane Da on Sunday and Monday, killing 35 people, according to the government, although a local authority maintains the real figure is 95 deaths. Neither has produced evidence for these tolls.

Keita cut short a trip to Switzerland on Wednesday to return to Mali and handle the fallout from the attack, the latest in a series of retaliatory strikes by Dogon hunters and Fulani herders that have killed hundreds of civilians this year.

“The state will proceed immediately to disarm anyone who illegally owns a firearm and those who refuse to surrender their arms will be sanctioned severely by the law,” he said in Sobane Da, before visiting the wounded at a local hospital.

Keita’s government made a similar pledge after an attack in March by suspected Dogon militiamen that killed more than 150 Fulani villagers. But it has struggled to disarm militias, whom local communities look to for protection from Islamist militants and ethnic reprisals.

The violence between Dogon and Fulani and regular attacks by jihadist groups with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State have led many Malians to lose faith in their government’s ability to protect them.

Keita’s government also announced it had fired General Sidy Alassane Toure as governor of the Mopti region where the killings occurred. It declared three days of national mourning.

Toure became the latest government official to lose his job as a result of authorities’ failure to contain spiraling ethnic violence around Mopti.

After the March attack in the village of Ogossagou, Mali’s worst act of violence in years, Keita dismissed two top army officials. His prime minister and entire government also resigned shortly thereafter.

The new prime minister, Boubou Cisse, visited the scene of this week’s killing on Tuesday, and said that among the dead were 24 children, some of whom had been shot in the back.

French forces intervened in Mali, a former French colony, in 2013 to push back a jihadist advance from the north, but the militants have since regrouped and turned parts of north and central Mali into a launchpad for attacks across the region.

Writing by Juliette Jabkhiro and Aaron Ross; Editing by Tim Cocks and Alison Williams

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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