Senators pressure PGR to reopen archived Covid-19 CPI cases

The Attorney General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet, met with a group of senators who participated in the Covid-19 CPI, on Tuesday night (19), to discuss the possible reopening of the processes that were archived by his predecessor, Augusto Aras . The possibility of resuming the investigation was announced by him at the beginning of this year, in which he stated that he would re-analyze “what was left to be done”.

Gonet described the meeting as “very enlightening, frank and held on a healthy basis of full confidence in the good will and public spirit of all participants”, as he told the newspaper The globe after the meeting with congressmen.

The senators reported to Gonet that one of the investigations resulting from the CPI was presented after the request for archiving made by the PGR. This would indicate, according to them, the presence of new facts that could give the attorney general clues to unarchive other investigations.

The case mentioned by the senators is under the report of minister Flávio Dino, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), who inherited the petition from minister Rosa Weber. In this petition, the CPI requested the investigation of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and other public agents for allegedly inciting the population to adopt inappropriate behavior to combat Covid-19.

One of the participants, senator Humberto Costa (PT-PE), from the government base, stated that the commission pointed out the alleged responsibility of 65 people for the deaths of more than 700 thousand victims of Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic in the country, in 2020.

“It is not possible, as the previous administration did, to archive the report and ignore all the actions and omissions of the genocidal government, the responsibilities of all those who contributed to the slaughter in our country. We want justice and we ask that of the new attorney general,” he said.

Also from the government base, senator Randolfe Rodrigues (no party-AP) said that he handed Gonet the final report of the CPI and that the attorney general “highlighted that the CPI and the work done by us is worthy of admiration and will receive due attention”.

“Appeals pending judgment at the STF can guarantee most of the CPI’s investigations. In addition to praising the work of the Commission, Gonet will study the appropriate actions and guaranteed that there will be no impunity”, added senator Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL), also present at the meeting.

Remember Covid’s CPI

Covid’s CPI was created in April 2021 with the aim of investigating actions and omissions by the federal government in confronting the pandemic and the collapse of health in the state of Amazonas. The final report was approved on October 26 of the same year, with the indictment of former president Jair Bolsonaro and 80 other people.

Bolsonaro was accused of nine crimes: epidemic resulting in death; infraction of preventive health measures; quackery; incitement to crime; forgery of a private document; irregular use of public funds; malfeasance; crimes against humanity; and liability crimes.

The final report was delivered to former prosecutor Aras and some STF ministers, such as Alexandre de Moraes. When analyzing the report, Aras demanded evidence of the indictments against Bolsonaro and other authorities, the CPI sent the material in February 2022.

In July of the same year, the PGR closed the investigations when it considered that “minimum evidence” was not presented to confirm that Bolsonaro and the others indicted in the report had “incurred in any criminal practice in the context in question”.

In 2022, Randolfe tried to open a new Covid CPI to investigate “actions and omissions by the Federal Government in confronting the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil from November 2021”. However, the request did not come to fruition.

Last year, the preliminary investigations opened by Covid’s CPI against Bolsonaro were shelved by minister Dias Toffoli, after accepting the PGR’s statement, which considered that “minimum evidence” had not been presented to open investigations against Bolsonaro and his allies .

In July, minister Gilmar Mendes ordered the closure of an investigation into the alleged omission of Bolsonaro government authorities in managing the Covid pandemic. The judge annulled a decision by the Federal Court of the Federal District that partially closed the investigation.