Sepúlveda Pertence, retired minister of the STF, dies
José Paulo Sepúlveda Pertence, retired minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), considered one of the greatest public men in Brazil, died Sunday (2), in Brasília, at 85 years old. He left behind three children and six grandchildren.
The magistrate’s body was mourned this Monday (3) by family, friends and authorities, at the STF.
Sepúlveda Pertence had been hospitalized since June 19. The cause of death was respiratory failure.
Pertence graduated from the Federal University of Minas Gerais Law School, in 1960. He participated in the student movement and was 1st vice-president of the National Student Union (UNE), in the biennium 1959/1960.
He was approved in first place in the contest for member of the Public Ministry of the Federal District, in September 1963. He was prosecutor until October 1969, when he was removed from office by the Military Junta, based on Institutional Act 5.
The jurist presided over the STF from 1995 to 1997. He also presided over the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) from 1993 to 1994 and from 2003 to 2005.
He served as Attorney General between 1985 and 1989 and presided over the Public Ethics Commission of the Presidency during Dilma Rousseff’s first term.
He was a member of the Institute of Lawyers of Brazil – IAB, since April 2011, where he was part of the Constitutional Law Commission.
Already retired from public service, in 2018 he was part of the team of lawyers of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, representing the former president in a trial in the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) of a preventive habeas corpus to avoid imprisonment.
