OAB sues STF and PGR against PF in investigation into Moraes – 02/18/2024 – Power

The OAB (Brazilian Bar Association) presented a representation against the Federal Police delegate who analyzed and exposed the communications between a lawyer and his client, in the case involving the investigation of hostility towards the minister of the STF (Supreme Federal Court) Alexandre de Lives in Rome.

The petition was presented to the PGR (Attorney General’s Office) and the STF this Sunday (18). According to the entity’s text, federal delegate Hiroshi de Araújo Sakaki included in the process “transcriptions of dialogues, prints of images and documents concerning communications between the client and his lawyer”.

The case refers to the family investigated on suspicion of harassing Moraes and his relatives at an airport in Rome.

A Sheet sought out the PF to comment on the case, but received no response until the publication of this text.

In a document analyzing the cell phones seized in the investigation, which was added to the process, the PF reports exchanges of messages between businessman Roberto Mantovani Filho, one of the targets of the investigation, and his lawyer, Ralph Tórtima Filho.

In a report released on Thursday (15), the PF concluded that Mantovani committed the crime of real insult against Moraes’ son, but decided not to indict anyone.

“The OAB’s actions in this case aim to defend the prerogatives of law, with a focus on the confidentiality of communications between lawyer and client”, says a note released by the entity.

The representations at the STF and the PGR are signed by the national president of the OAB, Beto Simonetti, by the national directors and directors, by the presidents and presidents of all sections, who ask for the criminal liability of the delegate as a result of committing an abuse of authority.

“The episode contains a serious offense against the prerogatives of the class and, therefore, the OAB asked the STF and the PGR to take measures to ensure the secrecy of communications, which is protected by the Constitution”, states Simonetti.

“It is unacceptable to go back to a time when there were no fundamental rights and freedoms. Defending democracy involves protecting its pillars, including the prerogatives of the legal profession”, says the national president of the OAB in the note.

The defense of those investigated under suspicion of harassing the minister’s family asked the court to exclude conversations between lawyer and client from the PF investigation on the grounds that there was a violation of professional secrecy.

In the exposed conversations, according to the PF report, the lawyer advises Mantovani not to speak to the press, saying that “they are very skilled and distort words”, and requested a complete report of what had happened.

He also stated that he would prepare a press release. Mantovani questions whether the report should be sent from his own cell phone, and the lawyer says it is better to send it on a device that does not belong to the family.

The confusion between Mantovani’s family and that of the minister happened in July last year. Moraes contacted the PF, which opened an investigation to determine the circumstances of the approach and also of a possible attack on the minister’s son.

The police were investigating, in addition to Mantovani and his wife, Andreia Munarão, the businessman’s son-in-law, Alex Zanata Bignotto, and his son, Giovanni Mantovani. The defenses of those involved in the episode have always said that the hostility against the judge did not come from them.

Until the 23rd, the Supreme Court will judge, virtually, other appeals presented by the defense and also by the PGR in the investigation.

The episode mobilized authorities across the country, who showed solidarity with the Supreme Court minister. President Lula (PT) compared the case to an act of a “wild animal”.

The PF delegate responsible for the case, Hiroshi de Araújo Sakaki, said that he did not indict the businessman because there is a normative instruction that prohibits indictment for a crime of lesser offensive potential, with a maximum penalty of one year. The investigations have been closed.

Actual insult is characterized in the Penal Code by the “use of violence or acts” to offend someone’s dignity or decorum.