Marcos Rogério: Moreover, the Brazilian Code of Civil Procedure – and the Code of Criminal Procedure, likewise – make this impediment clear.
Marcos Rogério: A judge who has an interest in the case, or their spouse, cannot participate in the proceedings.
This is a basic principle of law. Now, at the same time, it is important to ask: would the use of extradition in this case be a type of persecution of the whistleblower?
Marcos Rogério: Wouldn't that drive away whistleblowers? And here I am issuing a warning, because what is being done now to this former court staffer, this former aide, is also a message to any whistleblower.
Marcos Rogério: And then you have the State, through one of its branches, the Judiciary, saying clearly: "Look, depending on who denounces, the State, which should protect the whistleblower in order to investigate the content brought to the public, will invert: instead of looking at the facts, it will look at the whistleblower, to disqualify him or to lock him up behind bars!"