The Brazilian Minister of Justice, Sergio Moro, has launched a plan against crime and corruption in Brazil

The Brazilian Minister of Justice, Sergio Moro, presented Monday a set of measures aimed at to attack together corruption, organized crime and violent crimes, as one of the key promises of President Jair Bolsonaro's election campaign.

These three flagella "They are linked"Explained Moro at a press conference in Brasilia. "Organized crime uses corruption to gain impunity and is linked to a large proportion of homicides"in a country where there were about 64,000 homicides in 2017, he explained.

One of the proposals aims to leave the imprisonment of a convicted offender in a second instance appeal court, although it has not exhausted all the resources before the court. the country's maximum courts.

It was one of the main weapons of the Operation Lava Jato – the largest anti-corruption action in Latin America – in which Moro played a decisive role as a trial judge.

The issue of imprisonment in the second instance should be dealt with in April by the Supreme Court and an orientation contrary to that of Moro could lead to the release of many convicts, including the former president of the left, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has been serving a sentence since April. Twelve years and one month in prison for pbadive bribery and money laundering.

Other measures aim to strengthen sanctions against illegal financing of election campaigns ("Box 2").

With regard to the fight against violent crime, the bill considers as a "legitimate defense" the intervention of a police officer who "in an armed conflict or on the point of an impending armed conflict, prevents any unjust aggression against him or against third parties "

"We do not expand the legitimate defense, we only make it clear that certain everyday situations configure a legitimate defense (…) It's something that's already done in practice"said Moro.

In the section on combating powerful drug trafficking organizations, Moro proposes to confine his leaders in maximum security prisons and deprive them of the benefit of the reductions of sentence they remain related to these mafias.

Among the latter are the main criminal factions, such as the Sao Paulo-based First Commando of the Capital (PCC) and Comando Vermelho, whose stronghold is in Rio de Janeiro, as well as the parapolitic militias that control and impose their law in many favelas.

The objective is to tighten the conditions for "professional criminal If you are a professional criminal, the system will be more rigorous with you"said Moro.