Moraes aggression investigation runs without remote access and makes defense difficult

The investigation into the alleged aggression against Minister Alexandre de Moraes at Rome International Airport, in mid-July, is being carried out in secret by the Justice and without remote access by the defense, which needs to travel to Brasília every time it needs access to the file.

A People’s Gazette had access to information that the format of the process is making it difficult for the defense of the couple Roberto and Andréia Mantovani and their relative, Alex Zanatta Bignotto, who are identified as the alleged perpetrators of hostilities against the magistrate and family.

Ralph Tórtima explained to the report that he does not have access to the process remotely, and that he needs to go to the Federal Supreme Court (STF) office whenever he needs to. This, he says, incurs costs and slows down defense progress.

“It generates costs and does not have an automatic update, so I don’t know if any documents have been added recently. It’s like I have to file an application every week to keep up with the process. And it has to be a lawyer connected to my office to have access to the records”, he said.

He explains that, whenever he needs access to the records, he needs to send an application to Minister Dias Toffoli, wait for authorization, and only then send a lawyer with a pen drive to copy the records and other updates – such as the attachment of a new document.

Tórtima also expects, this week, to receive the images recorded by the security circuit of the Italian airport to determine the circumstances of the alleged aggression.

This difficulty in accessing a digital process is considered abnormal in the current context of technological development, according to a jurist interviewed by the People’s Gazette. Aécio Flávio Palmeira Fernandes, specialist in Constitutional Law, says that the digitization of processes has allowed the “exercise of law and jurisdiction in a more practical way and regardless of where the records are”, which is not happening with this case.

“There is no technical justification for such a setback. In our view, the intention is to make it difficult for lawyers to access the records and the defense of our clients, since if the processes are confidential, the attorney has to travel from his State through an appointment with the Minister’s advisory, to obtain copy of the records”, he said.

In other words, the defenders of the parties to the process need to go to the STF in person to have access to the documents, which generates transport costs and slowness in formulating defense theses with each new progress or annexation of evidence, “in no way contributing to the celerity and the primary objectives of state jurisdiction”.

For Fernandes, this limitation of access is “a great disservice to the law, to the jurisdiction, to the parties and, above all, to the defenders, hindered in the full exercise of the law”.

“If the electronic judicial process is already perfectly disciplined and regulated by law and its operation is fully, quickly and efficiently, there is no reason for such a legal-procedural embarrassment”, he added.

The STF was contacted by the report to confirm the modality of the process, but stated that it cannot provide more information due to “secrecy”.

The suspects of the hostilities have already been heard by the PF and stated that they could have just bumped into Moraes’ son after criticism for not being able to access the airport’s VIP lounge, which the magistrate would have entered without restrictions. The minister, on the other hand, told the authority that he was called a “communist”, “bandit” and “bought”, and that he would have “frauded the polls and stolen the elections”. Moraes’ allegations were denied by the defense of the Mantovani couple.

In addition, Roberto and Andréia say “that they were, especially Andréia, seriously offended by the aforementioned young man who, on two occasions, disrespected them, with extremely heavy offenses, which only ceased when Minister Alexandre de Moraes intervened, who reappointed him inside the VIP room.