Chamber votes for Brazão’s arrest amid criticism of Moraes – 04/09/2024 – Power

The Chamber of Deputies is expected to vote this Wednesday (10) on maintaining the arrest of deputy Chiquinho Brazão (no party-RJ) amid a climate of revolt with the minister of the STF (Supreme Federal Court) Alexandre de Moraes and the lack of definition of bench leaders on the topic.

One of the main names in the center of the House has already announced that he is in favor of Brazão’s release.

The case will be voted on by the CCJ (Constitution and Justice Commission) in the morning and the House’s plenary is expected to analyze the situation of the parliamentarian accused of ordering the murder of councilor Marielle Franco (PSOL-RJ) on the same day.

The vote takes place because any arrest of parliamentarians occurring while in office must be endorsed by the National Congress.

The president of the House, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), informed the meeting of leaders that Brazão’s detention will be guided and left each party to decide how they will position themselves. “The CCJ votes on the report tomorrow and comes to the plenary tomorrow afternoon. On the merits, no one said absolutely anything”, he said this Tuesday (9).

Centrão and right-wing deputies heard by the Sheet understand that the critical assessment of Moraes’ performance made the scenario of the Brazão case undefined. The congressman’s detention was ordered by the magistrate in March.

On the one hand, the majority of the House wants to send a message to the minister because it sees violations of parliamentarians’ prerogatives in recent decisions. On the other hand, they recognize that the brutality and social commotion involved in Marielle’s death make it difficult to form a majority to free the person accused of ordering the councilor’s death.

Defenders of overturning the prison say that maintaining the decision would further strengthen the magistrate, while the articulation in the House in recent months goes in the opposite direction, of imposing brakes on Moraes.

One of the main leaders of the center stated with reservation that there is a chance of not maintaining the prison, but recognizes the potential embarrassment in making a decision in this regard.

Centrão exponent, Elmar Nascimento (União Brasil-BA) said he will vote for his release. “My vote is that there is no legal provision for preventive detention for parliamentarians. I will vote for the Constitution. Each deputy votes with his conscience”, he stated.

He said he will free up his party’s bench so that each deputy can position themselves as they prefer.

One of the fears of parliamentarians concerns the fear that this situation will set a precedent for cases in the future — therefore, they say that caution is needed on the subject.

Despite this, the bet behind the scenes is that the arrest will be maintained, especially given the fact that it is an open vote. The prediction is that the benches will meet to debate the issue, but many of them are not expected to close the issue, freeing the deputies to vote as they wish.

One studied strategy would be to overthrow the prison and, subsequently, revoke the deputy’s mandate, as a way of showing that the House is not condescending to impunity, but also does not tolerate offensives by the Judiciary against parliamentarians. The Ethics Commission will initiate the process of revoking the deputy’s mandate this Wednesday.

Dissatisfaction with Moraes has been the focus of meetings on the topic. This year, the minister ordered a search and seizure in the offices of deputies Carlos Jordy (PL-RJ) and Alexandre Ramagem (PL-RJ), as part of investigations investigating whether former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and people close to him tried to make a coup to prevent Lula (PT) from taking office.

The magistrate is also criticized for giving court orders contrary to the opinions of the PGR (Attorney General’s Office) and for not giving access to the records of the cases being investigated.

Even critics of these parliamentarians’ actions consider some of Moraes’ decisions to be exaggerated and violative of parliamentarians’ prerogatives.

Furthermore, there are deputies who do not see in Brazão’s case the requirements for arresting a deputy during his mandate: caught in the act and for a non-bailable crime. Another point is that there would not be enough evidence against the deputy and that it would be a mistake to support the arrest that would have been ordered only based on a plea bargain.

The referendum on the decision was discussed at the CCJ, but deputies Gilson Marques (Novo-SC), Fausto Pinato (PP-SP) and Roberto Duarte (Republicanos-AC) asked for a review (more time to analyze the case) and postponed the decision. definition in the collegiate, which also delayed the analysis in plenary.

The following week, the Chamber was empty due to the end of the registration deadline to compete in this year’s municipal election and, once again, the vote on the topic was rescheduled.

The delay in considering the case already indicates the resistance on the part of the House towards Moraes’ actions. Now, however, Lira has decided to take the case further. First, the commission will analyze the opinion of the rapporteur, deputy Darci de Matos (PSD-SC), for maintaining the prison. Afterwards, the topic goes to plenary.

After being arrested on March 24, Brazão was expelled from União Brasil. The deputy, however, was already certain to migrate to the Republicans, a party that, in practice, already commanded the capital of Rio de Janeiro.

The former counselor of the TCE (State Audit Court) of Rio Domingos Brazão, brother of the parliamentarian, and the delegate Rivaldo Barbosa, former head of the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro, were also arrested in Operation Murder Inc., carried out jointly by the Police Federal with the PGR and the state’s Federal Public Ministry.

In addition to the arrest warrants, the police carried out 12 search and seizure warrants, all in Rio. According to the PF, the measures were carried out on a Sunday to surprise the suspects. There are indications that they would try to escape.

The search also included police chief Giniton Lages, who was in charge of the Marielle case at the beginning of the investigations, at the homicide police station in Rio; Marcos Antônio de Barros Pinto, who was his assistant; Erika Araújo, Rivaldo’s wife; and Robson Calixto Fonseca.

Brazão has already presented his defense before the CCJ and stated that he had a “great relationship” with Marielle when he was a councilor with her.

He cited a bill that the Federal Police pointed to in its investigation as one of the signs of motivation for the crime, in March 2018. Investigators stated that Marielle was murdered “because she was seen as an obstacle to the interests” of the family.

During the investigation, the police highlighted differences between Marielle and Chiquinho Brazão in a discussion in the Rio Chamber about the project. Brazão, however, said that this is “too simple a thing to take on such a crazy dimension.”

“The topic being debated today took place at the Rio de Janeiro City Council in a debate. It was a debate where I debated with the councilwoman, a simple thing. I don’t see this link generating what it generated for the whole world, for Brazil, for simple disagreement of points of view. Where I was fighting to approve bill 174”, said the deputy.