Supreme of Brazil raises secrecy of the investigation of the case of Banco Master

A decision was made on Thursday night, after the president of the Supreme Court, Edson Fachin, had requested the lifting of the secrecy of the Master Bank process - considered the largest bank fraud in the history of the country - in order to allow free access to information to all members of the superior court.

In a letter sent to Mendonça, the presidency of the court based the request on the closeness of the extraordinary meeting convened in five days' time, in which matters relating to the proceedings will be discussed.

In addition, it is asked to send to the Presidency and to the other judges' offices all judicial investigations — which left Mendonça the competence to decide — on a hard drive.

The measure provides that only police or judicial investigations are kept confidential, such as searches and arrests or arrest warrants, whose effectiveness depends strictly on the surprise factor.

Although in Brazil the president of the court does not exercise hierarchical authority over the other magistrates in the judicial decisions they take — which left Mendonça the jurisdiction to decide — the rapporteur eventually chose to grant the request and authorize access to the documents of the case.

The request appears on the eve of the extraordinary session scheduled for next Tuesday, when the plenary of the Supreme Court will analyze the report of the Federal Police that identified conversations between magistrate Alexandre de Moraes and the banker arrested Daniel Vorcaro, owner of the Master.

In this session, it will be decided whether a formal investigation against Moraes will be opened.

The SFT is at the center of this controversy a week ago, when Mendonça himself disqualified the police report that revealed the proximity between Moraes and Vorcaro.

In messages found on the banker's phone, he asks the judge for information on the police operations under way against him as well as for help trying to delay them.

In response to this action, Moraes requested that Mendonça be investigated for abuse of power and quoted a police report with no probation.

These maneuvers coincide with the position expressed by the Brazilian President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who defended, on Thursday, in an interview, the opening of investigations.

In statements to the SBT channel, Lula also criticized the “selective gaps” by the judges, something that, according to the leader, causes damage to the policy and credibility of the Supreme Court.

All this happens less than a month from the presidential elections, in which Lula seeks a fourth non-consecutive term, facing a range of right-wing candidates.

Among them is Senator Flávio Bolsonaro – son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, convicted of attempted coup d'état in a process conducted by Moraes –, the most popular figure of the opposition, which is seven points away from the progressive leader in the voting intentions for the first round, according to the latest polls.