Moraes fines Silveira’s lawyer for insisting on sentence progression

Minister Alexandre do Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), once again denied the request to increase the sentence from a closed to a semi-open regime for former federal deputy Daniel Silveira. This time, Moraes also fined Silveira’s lawyer for insisting on repeated requests to the Court.

In the new request to Moraes, presented in February, lawyer Paulo Faria claimed that 16% of the sentence has already been served, based on the hours the convict dedicated to studies and work. And according to the lawyer, Silveira has remained in a closed regime for more than 200 days without progression, which violates the Criminal Executions Law and the former deputy’s constitutional rights.

When delivering the decision, the minister refuted the defense’s argument that the former parliamentarian had served 16% of his sentence – a necessary condition for the request. Moraes highlighted item III of article 112 of the Criminal Executions Law, which establishes that the transfer to a less rigorous regime will occur when the prisoner has served 25% of the sentence.

Faced with repeated requests from the defense, Moraes ordered a fixed fine of R$2,000 to the defense lawyer. And as justification, he said that it was “due to bad faith litigation” by the defense and that the fine is “peacefully” accepted by the Court’s jurisprudence.

Defense response

Lawyer Paulo Faria criticized the minister’s decision, especially the fact that it was released to the press without being entered into the STF system. According to the lawyer, the leak of the decision “constitutes a violation of functions and a crime typified in the Penal Code (Art. 154, CPB)”, and therefore he intends to present another “representation to the Federal Council of the OAB, and Fact News to the Attorney General’s Office to investigate the conduct.”

According to the lawyer, “the minister propagated “Fake News” by stating that the matters discussed had already been decided, adducing bad faith.” He further explained that the progression requests “were made after 02/19, when the Defense became aware of the percentage of compliance for regime progression purposes, set at 16% (Art. 112, I, LEP)”. “The previous decision (02/05) was appealed on 02/07, and until now, ignored by the rapporteur”, he said.

Faria also denied having acted in “bad faith”, unlike the minister himself who, according to him, “abuses his authority, power and commits numerous crimes provided for by law, including the tortureand, for the second time, imposes a fine under false accusations of bad faith”.

Last Saturday (30), Faria asked for the minister’s arrest for a “crime of torture” and the reason for the request would be not to confer on the former deputy the regime’s non-progression. In the petition, filed with the PGR, the lawyer asked that Moraes’ conduct be investigated, as he was “committing the crime of torture, abuse of authority and malfeasance”.

Former deputy Daniel Silveira was sentenced by the STF, in 2022, for threats and incitement to violence against ministers of the Court, to 8 years and 9 months in prison in the closed regime, payment of a fine of R$ 192.5 thousand, in addition to the loss of parliamentary mandate. . In the same year, he tried to run for the Senate, but his candidacy was rejected by the courts.