Bolsonaro’s favorite for the Supreme Court, Kassio Nunes has decisions against indigenous people and pro-agribusiness

The appointment of the judge, whose appointment to the Supreme Court has yet to be approved by the Senate, has the support of important parliamentarians from Centrão, a political group that brings together several parties and that began supporting the government a few months ago. One of them is Senator Ciro Nogueira (PP), who, like Nunes, is from Piauí.

An analysis by BBC News Brazil of the decisions made by the judge indicates that he is close to the Bolsonaro government when it judges indigenous, environmental and issues of interest in the agricultural sector.

In September 2019, for example, a preliminary decision reversed the decision of a trial judge to remove 2,500 non-indigenous residents from the Jarudore Indigenous Territory, territory of the Bororo Indians, in Poxoréu (MT).

The decision responded to an appeal by the city government, arguing that the eviction would cause “great losses” to order, security and the economy of the city.

The Public Ministry, favorable to the withdrawal, argued in the lawsuit that, for decades, the Bororo were “evicted from their lands by successive acts of the State of Mato Grosso” and “abandoned by the Federal Public Power, which did little or nothing to protect and protect their traditional territory ”, which favored the entry of“ farmers, land grabbers and garimpeiros ”.

In the precautionary measure, the judge considered that “the consequences of the forced eviction of more than two thousand people -identified as ‘non-indigenous’ – are substantially more harmful than those derived from the maintenance of a situation that has lasted at least 55 (fifty and five)) years and that, according to the amount stated in the judgment, it covers only two Indian villages (whose exact number of members has not even been mentioned) to which an area equivalent to that of the Federal District will be allocated ”.

Nunes also questioned the “natural right” of indigenous people to the territory. “During the long course of action (presented in 2006), the main document that supports the author’s claim is the anthropological report, which starts from the premise that the analyzed lands have their origin in immemorial occupations of indigenous peoples. This premise, however, is equivalent to accepting the existence of a kind of Natural Law that is superimposed on the entire legal system, including the Constitution itself “.

In September 2018, the judge reversed another first instance decision that suspended the registration in Brazil of glyphosate-based pesticides, on the suspicion that the substance, the most sold pesticide in the world, would be carcinogenic.

The decision was celebrated in advance at the end of August by the then Minister of Agriculture, Blairo Maggi, indicating possible inside information about the course of the process.

“Good news! You have just revoked the court order that prohibits the use of glyphosate in Brazil,” he posted on the networks. The next day, he acknowledged that the decision was not yet ready and apologized.

Now 48, Nunes joined TRF-1 in 2011, in one of the vacancies for the Court. He was appointed a judge by the then president Dilma Rousseff (PT), from a triple list formed by the court itself after the Federal Council of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) chose six candidates.

In 2014, while still in the PT government, Nunes made another decision unfavorable to indigenous peoples, in response to an appeal by the National Indigenous Foundation (Funai) against the determination of the Federal Court of Itaituba (PA) to accelerate the process of demarcation of the territory Sawré Muybu. , occupied by the Munduruku people, in Pará.

According to the Public Ministry, the identification and delimitation studies necessary for the demarcation were ready since 2013, but were not published because the recognition of the territory would impede the development of the São Luiz do Tapajós hydroelectric plant, which is of interest to the Dilma government. .

In September 2014, the then president of Funai, Maria Augusta Assirati, came to publicly acknowledge this in a recorded meeting with representatives of Munduruku.

Although the MPF argued that the delay in demarcation aggravated the conflicts caused by logging invaders and prospectors, the judge considered that demanding that Funai accelerate the process of recognition of indigenous territory could also have a negative effect.

In this sense, if the conflictive problems reported in the admission test result from the uncertainty generated by the lack of demarcation, on the other hand, the indication of the delimitation, in a timely manner, without carrying the necessary structure for the immediate guarantee of these limits, what requires a budget for the payment of damages, expropriation for settlements and a series of measures that would be required immediately after the disclosure of the delimitation, can generate major conflicts in the region, “wrote Nunes, when solving the case .

With the economic crisis and the impeachment of Dilma, the hydroelectric project has not advanced. The territory of Sawré Muybu has not yet been demarcated.

As the new president of the STF, Minister Luiz Fux, indicated his intention to re-judge the possibility of prison after a second-level sentence, Bolsonaro’s appointment may be decisive in changing the outcome of the trial that in 2019 prohibited compliance anticipated sentence. sanction – except in the case of detention for precautionary measure, that is, when there is evidence that the accused may flee or is acting to obstruct investigations.

Last year’s trial had an adjusted score, from 6 to 5, and Celso de Mello voted in favor of the arrest only after all of the defendant’s resources were exhausted. This decision changed the previous understanding of the STF, which had allowed it to be detained before finalizing the process.

In 2018, when the early detention was authorized, Nunes spoke in favor of the possibility of serving the sentence after a second instance conviction, but said that this should not be automatic, as it must be verified by the judge.

“What the Supreme Court said, in my interpretation, was what you stated in your question. It’s possible? Yes! There is no need to wait for the final decision for the arrest decree. In my opinion, the Supreme Court authorized the courts to do so. Proceed, but he did not force them to do so, “he said, when asked about the issue in an interview with the specialized legal portal Conjur.

“Detention in prison is not a logical consensus that does not require an informed decision and an analysis of the circumstances of each case. It is necessary that the order is, in addition to express, justified. Given the circumstances of the case, the judges may or may not adopt the constricting measure of freedom. They can understand that it would not be the case of withdrawal in a given case, but not in a discretionary way, much less automatically and never without due reasoning, “added the judge at the time.

For the criminal lawyer Antônio Carlos de Almeida Castro, known as Kakay, the profile of Nunes to judge criminal matters is not clear.

“I like Kassio, I think he is a correct, hard-working, discreet person. He is a judge with a humanist profile, I would say. He has not been much proven (he judged few cases) in the criminal sphere to say if he is a guarantor judge, but he is a judge “. respect and that he has a good and solid legal background, ”Kakay told BBC News Brazil.

If Nunes’ appointment is confirmed by the Senate, he will be the only Northeast minister in the current composition of the Court, leaving the North region as the only one that does not have any members in the STF.

His possible nomination was celebrated by the president of the PP and senator for Piauí, Ciro Nogueira, one of the main leaders of the Centrão and against whom there is a complaint from the General Prosecutor’s Office for corruption pending analysis by the Supreme Court.

“All of us in Piauí support the appointment of Dr. Kassio Nunes as the new minister of the Federal Supreme Court, who would be the first Piauí in more than 50 years in the Supreme Court,” Nogueira posted on Twitter.

“Without a doubt, the election of President Jair Bolsonaro would be a gesture of recognition of the capacity of the people of Piauí and of the entire Northeast,” the senator reinforced.