Judge Sergio Moro, who became a celebrity in Brazil for presiding over several cases of political corruption, accepted on Thursday an offer from President-elect Jair Bolsonaro to become the country's new justice minister.

The newly-elected president is expected to merge the ministries of justice and public security, which means that Moro will have authority over both the judiciary and the federal police.

Moro's nomination is highly controversial due to him being an iconic figure in anti-corruption cases. He was the judge who accused former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of taking bribes last year, while Lula was the leading presidential candidate until the court banned him from running because of the conviction.

In other words, Moro was responsible for taking out of the race the only candidate who had, in all polls, an advantage over Bolsonaro. According to the polls, Lula would have beaten Bolsonaro in the first round of elections, without a runoff required.

That alone was seen as evidence that Moro was partial in his judgement of Lula, which was part of the mega Operation Carwash, a major Federal Police operation that is unraveling a large bribe scheme involving contracts between the government and the private sector.

Lula's Workers' Party (PT) has always complained that the judge focused only on Lula and PT politicians, to the point of ignoring denouncements against right-wing politicians, many of whom were from Bolsonaro's old party, the Progressive Party.

Moro also disclosed the very negative testimony of a former PT high-profile member a few days before the election, which was seen as an attempt to damage the chances of Lula's replacement in the race, Fernando Haddad.

Moro said in 2016 that he would never become a politician and criticized illegal and undeclared campaign funding, qualifying it as a worse offense than corruption in office.

But he will have as his fellow ministers people investigated for both crimes: Onyx Lorenzoni, announced as the future chief of staff, admitted to illegal campaign funding, and future Minister of Economy Paulo Guedes is being investigated for financial fraud.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)