(Bloomberg) -- Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva appointed former top court judge Ricardo Lewandowski to lead the country’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security, he announced in a speech Thursday.

Lewandowski, 75, will replace Justice Minister Flavio Dino, Lula’s choice to fill a vacant Supreme Court seat.

The veteran judge Lula appointed to the Supreme Court in 2006 will now take over the ministry that oversees Brazil’s national prison system and its Federal Police, the country’s top law enforcement agency. 

Since Lula’s return to office last year, the Justice Ministry has engaged in efforts to combat organized crime and environmental destruction in the Amazon rainforest and assisted probes into the Jan. 8, 2023 insurrection attempt against the government. 

The Federal Police are also in the midst of numerous investigations into former President Jair Bolsonaro, and nearing the end of a closely-watched probe into the 2018 assassination of Rio de Janeiro city councilwoman Marielle Franco. 

Lewandowski retired from the Supreme Court in 2023 after reaching the mandatory retirement age, and has since served as legal counsel for a national industry interest group. 

During his time on the court, he ruled on cases that included the establishment of racial quotas for admissions to public universities, the prohibition of hiring relatives for public positions and the legality of Covid-19 vaccine mandates.

As the court’s president in 2016, he oversaw the Senate’s impeachment trial of former President Dilma Rousseff, a member of Lula’s Workers’ Party.

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