Brazil President’s Christmas Decree Draws a Firestorm, and a Rebuff Roberson Pozzobon said that It would do great harm to Lava Jato in the best of cases, delaying the execution of sentences for at least a decade, On Thursday, Justice Cármen Lúcia Antunes Rocha, the head of Brazil’s Supreme Court, suspended key provisions of the Christmas order, including one that would have relaxed the rules by allowing people to seek a pardon after serving one-fifth of their term, instead of one-quarter. Rio said that This pardon is the most concrete act by President Temer against the mechanism of plea bargains and a clear sign that he wants to weaken the judiciary’s fight against corruption, But prosecutors expressed outrage, calling the move an "insulto natalino," or Christmas insult, signed by a deeply unpopular president who this year managed to stave off prosecution over accusations of condoning bribes, obstructing justice and helping mastermind a huge kickback scheme. Prosecutors had argued that the president’s decree would make plea bargains — a relatively new feature of Brazilian criminal law, but one that has been instrumental in the Lava Jato investigation — far less appealing. Efraim Filho said that It served an important role in the country in the 1980s, at a time when there was fear that people would be prosecuted for their words and their deeds back when the justice system was weak,
