Lula’s Amnesty Commission will review more than 11,000 decisions by Damares

The Amnesty Commission, under the responsibility of the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship (MDHC), announced that it will take a new course in the Lula government, with actions very different from those taken during the management of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Initially, the new commission defined by Minister Sílvio Almeida will create an internal regulation, to be published shortly in the Official Gazette (DOU), which will give approval to go through a “fine-tooth comb” and reverse decisions of more than 11 thousand processes that were granted or denied by the team of former Minister Damares Alves.

Among the processes to be reviewed are cases such as the annulment of political amnesty to 300 cables of the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) and a request for compensation from former president Dilma Rousseff, rejected in 2022. lawyer and professor Eneá de Stutz, there are about 3,800 cases awaiting judgment and another 2,000 of pent-up demand. Although the total number of cases to be judged and reviewed is not yet precise, it is estimated that it will be around 20,000.

“We are planning the first judgment session for March 30th, to appreciate only 4 cases, which are representative of the reinstallation of the Amnesty Commission. Emblematic cases, which significantly demonstrate what was being done, illegally, and how it will be from now on forward”, explained Enea.

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The group met last week to define the activities, the bylaws and give a formal response to the request from the Federal Public Defender’s Office (DPU), which was presented on the last 17th. FAB cables and the review of all the work carried out by the commission since March 2019.

“It is possible to anticipate that the Council of the Commission shares the same ideas and assumptions as the DPU, and there is, therefore, a convergence of thoughts. The Amnesty Commission is evaluating the legal mechanisms to review, yes, all decisions that are in non-compliance with Law 10.559/2002. As soon as the Commission’s new Internal Regulations are published, it will be possible to start the trial sessions with the first revisions”, explained Enéa.

Regarding the action of FAB cables, former minister and current senator Damares Alves recalls that they were dismissed during the military dictatorship for administrative reasons, and that the case ended up receiving the classification of political persecution, unduly, in 2002. Based on this decision of 2002, 2,529 benefits were granted to former soldiers, which cost the Air Force R$ 31.5 million per month. Based on the same determination, another 500 people who joined the FAB after the publication of the ordinance were also benefited – and who could not, therefore, claim that they were politically persecuted, since the rule already existed when they were hired.

“I have immense respect for the DPU and its members and I believe that the initiative contemplates its independence of action. I understand, however, that this recommendation promotes unnecessary legal uncertainty in the entire context of the amnesty. As soon as I took office as minister, I did absolutely everything to to speed up the work. And only now, after we left the government, did they come up with these recommendations. Why only now? It took three years of action and everything was absolutely backed by the law. I am very calm about that, “he explained.

An action on the 300 ordinances of 2019 in Damares, related to FAB cables, has been pending in the Federal Supreme Court (STF) since December 2020. Minister Carmen Lúcia, the rapporteur for the process, voted for the unconstitutionality of these ordinances in May last year, but the trial was suspended due to a prominent request by Minister Dias Toffoli.

Concessions in the management of Damares

In Bolsonaro’s government, the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights (MMFDH) was responsible for analyzing claims for compensation made by people who say they were harmed by the military regime that prevailed in Brazil from 1964 to 1985. denied claims for compensation and also questioned previous decisions, such as that of the FAB cables.

Damares Alves said that her team analyzed more than 11,000 amnesty requests, when they were discovered “absurd” in relation to the concessions and the fairness of the procedures. “Former members of the commission left the collegiate to become legal representatives (lawyers) of the applicants. There was even a suspicion that they took advantage of the influence they had to ‘pass ahead’ the requirements of their clients. We put an end to that establishing in internal regulations the quarantine of former members of the Amnesty Commission and also the chronological analysis of the applications, that is, we take to analyze the oldest applications”, said the former minister.

According to Damares, the work was behind schedule and it was necessary to analyze requests from 2003, when the Commission was created. “See how many absurdities. I always tried to maintain a dialogue with the representatives of the amnestied people and I made this position clear. There were no surprises about our performance”, he declared.

Damares also reinforced that he has always positioned himself “in favor of granting the benefit to those who, in fact, prove to have been politically persecuted”. She said she was moved by stories of applicants who “went for years, grew old and even passed away before their applications were reviewed.”

“We took this passive of 11,000 requests and practically all of them were analyzed by the end of the collegiate. I was also inspected by control bodies. Everything should strictly obey what was in the law. administrative process, there is always a judicial way to obtain it. The judge can decide taking into account other factors. I, as a public manager, could not”, he said.

Regarding the possibility of the requests for concessions being annulled, Damares reinforced that her actions were carried out within the law. “If the new ministry decides to annul all acts, I hope they do so with great certainty, as all these acts will be subject to analysis by the control bodies, and ours here in Parliament as well”, he said.

Lawyer Bruno Talpai, master of Law and specialist in Human Rights, explains that, in cases of “unconstitutionality or misuse of purposes”, all concessions can be reviewed, as it is an administrative rite.

What is the Amnesty Commission?

The Amnesty Law, signed in 1979 by former President João Batista Figueiredo, determined the forgiveness of all those who committed political or electoral crimes between September 1961 and August 1979. In 2002, during the Fernando Henrique Cardoso (PSDB) government, the Law 10,559/2002 instituted the Political Amnesty Regime, which provides compensation for those who suffered persecution and torture by the State during the military dictatorship. In the same year, the Amnesty Commission was created, responsible for analyzing the processes and judging possible reparations.

The new commission in the Lula government was made official at the end of February, with the appointment of the last members. In the group are former advisers, former persecuted by the dictatorship and jurists. Among the formerly persecuted is Rita Sipahi, imprisoned with Dilma, and the president of Associação 64/68-Amnesty, Mario de Miranda Albuquerque. For the first time, the commission does not have military personnel. According to the folder, those chosen have “technical experience, especially in dealing with the theme of integral reparation, memory and truth”.