Delegate responsible for arrest of former Bolsonaro minister is indicted

Responsible for the investigation that led to the arrest of the former Minister of Education, Milton Ribeiro, the federal delegate, Bruno Calandrini, was indicted by the Federal Police (PF) for malfeasance, entering false data and abuse of authority.

According to the PF, the illegalities were committed during the course of the investigations that implicated Ribeiro for alleged corruption in the department during the Bolsonaro government.

Ribeiro was arrested on June 22, 2022 along with two pastors accused of operating a “business desk” at the Ministry of Education and releasing funds from the FNDE (National Education Development Fund). The former minister was released one day after his arrest.

In May 2022, days before the former minister’s arrest, conversations were released in which delegate Calandrini, through messages to colleagues, complained of “interference in the investigations against Milton”.

One day after the minister’s arrest, the PF said it would investigate the alleged interference in the operation.

Alleging different treatment from colleagues regarding the minister’s case, Calandrini even asked for the arrest of members of the PF leadership and the case ended up at the Federal Supreme Court (STF).

On September 30, 2022, Calandrini was removed from the case because, in the understanding of the PF Internal Affairs Department, he had become “part” of the investigation.

The Internal Affairs investigation to investigate the alleged interference in the operation was opened on October 7, 2022 and ended on March 6, 2024.

In the report, the PF concluded that the interference alleged by the police chief did not exist and that Calandrini committed the crimes of “malfeasance (article 319 of the Penal Code); insertion of false data into an information system (article 313-A of the Brazilian Penal Code); and abuse of authority.”

According to the report, Calandrini took statements from public administration employees without authorization to investigate their participation in the alleged scheme maintained by the minister.

The four employees interviewed by the delegate without authorization were: João Batista Silva Barbosa, Director of Penitentiary Administration; Vinicius Araújo de Lima, Federal Police delegate; Samuelson Yoiti Igaki, Secretary of State for Public Administration; and Carlos Olavo Silveira, Director of Intelligence at the State Secretariat for Penitentiary Administration (SAP).

Furthermore, according to the Internal Affairs report, the statements of the four employees were not attached to the investigations.

According to the PF, when there is a need to investigate the alleged participation of federal police officers in crimes, the Internal Affairs Department is responsible for opening an investigation by communicating the fact to the Public Ministry and designating a member to monitor the case.

Calandrini would also have placed his investigation under secrecy “unnecessarily”, according to the PF report.