PCC plan: MPF does not see crime, but judge rejects filing – 03/29/2023 – Power

The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office in Paraná asked the Justice to shelve the investigations into the alleged plan by the PCC criminal faction to attack Senator Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR). Judge Gabriela Hardt, from the 9th Federal Court of Curitiba, denied the request.

According to the prosecutor responsible for the case, José Soares, planning a crime cannot be punished under Brazilian law. Thus, as the suspects did not initiate the execution of the alleged plan, they cannot be punished.

“Because the crime of extortion through planned and prepared kidnapping against Senator Sergio Moro and his family is atypical and not punishable, according to article 31 of the Penal Code”, he says.

The MPF asked for the filing only in relation to the crime of extortion through kidnapping. The prosecutor also asked that the other crimes (criminal organization and the crime of illegally carrying/possessing a firearm) be transferred to the state courts of São Paulo.

In her decision, the judge stated that the investigation is still ongoing and that it is premature to close it a few days after the outbreak of the Federal Police operation.

“The gaps that may exist can be clarified by the elements of information that have already been and also by those that will still be collected (such as the hearing of the investigated), and cannot be interpreted —at this pre-procedural moment and when the police diligences have not yet ended— as the acknowledgment of the non-existence of crime”, says an excerpt from his dispatch this Tuesday (28).

The judge says that during the recent searches documents and equipment were seized —such as cell phones, notebooks and pen drives— that are still undergoing forensic examination and that it would be “prudent at least to wait for the extraction and analysis of the data, which may reveal the details of the crimes perpetrated”.

Regarding the competence of the Federal Justice of Paraná, and not of São Paulo, Gabriela Hardt states that the place of the last act of the criminal plan is decisive for the definition.

Regarding the MPF’s request, the Federal Police pointed out that the crime of extortion through kidnapping is just one of the crimes being investigated and recalled that those investigated remained in Curitiba and region for more than six months.

Thus, for the PF, the process should continue to be processed in Curitiba at least until the presentation of the final report of the case, to “allow the broadest and clearest decision-making”.

On the 22nd, the PF carried out arrest warrants and carried out a series of steps to dismantle a plan by the criminal faction that would be underway to attack authorities, including Moro. Nine people were arrested and two are still wanted.

The attacks, according to the PF investigation, would take place simultaneously, and the main targets were in São Paulo and Paraná.

The maintenance of stricter rules in federal prisons, such as the prohibition of intimate visits, and the transfers of leaders during their tenure in Justice are cited as hypotheses for the former judge and former Minister of Justice of the Bolsonaro government to have entered the list of faction.