Stabbing: PF investigation sees link between PCC and Adélio’s defense – 04/19/2023 – Power

An ongoing Federal Police investigation cites a possible relationship between the PCC criminal faction and payments for the defense of Adélio Bispo de Oliveira, who stabbed Jair Bolsonaro in 2018.

The investigation restarted last year contradicts previous conclusions and suggests a thesis considered inconsistent by the current direction of the PF, which sees weaknesses in the cited evidence.

Two PF investigations have already pointed out that Adélio acted alone on September 6 of that year.

The possibility now analyzed is based especially on payments from those accused of being part of the faction to one of the lawyers who defended Adélio, but which were made two years after the attack on Bolsonaro.

The lawyer investigated in the case denies any connection with the PCC and says that the transfers are related to the defense of other clients, not Adélio’s.

Repeated psychiatric reports, carried out in different stages, have also been conclusive in pointing out the mental insanity of the perpetrator of the stab wound, who ended up being considered unaccountable and who is in compliance with a security measure at the federal penitentiary in Campo Grande (MS).

The new direction in the inquiry took place in the last year of the Bolsonaro government, after the Justice authorized investigators to have access to the cell phone content of one of the lawyers who were part of the defense and after a new delegate took over this case.

Investigations involving the stabbing were constant targets of criticism by Bolsonaro. The change of delegate occurred because the first was invited to take a position abroad.

The diagnosis of inconsistency in the new line of investigation is made mainly by the DIP (Intelligence Directorate), where the inquiry is located and which is currently headed by the federal delegate Rodrigo Morais, who several times pointed out that there was no principal in the case.

For the top of the PF, the fact that the suspected payments were made two years after the attack is one of the inconsistencies.

In addition to not agreeing with the new line of investigation, the DIP also sees supposed internal pressure in recent months for the stabbing case to have some progress during the election period.

The person currently responsible for the investigation is delegate Martin Bottaro. He took over in 2021 when Morais was chosen for a position in the US. In recent months, he had the help of another delegate, Victor Hugo Rodrigues. Bottaro is considered one of the leading CCP experts in the PF today.

Before the change in the line of investigation, the two investigations opened by the PF involved a series of diligences, testimonies, breaches of secrecy and other means of investigation that led the police to conclude that they had no evidence of third-party financing of the lawyers.

The hypothesis considered strongest by investigators at the time is that the lawyers took on the case for free, in exchange for the notoriety they would gain in the media.

In the most recent investigations, the inquiry began to point out evidence that the PCC made payments to Fernando Costa Oliveira Magalhães, one of the lawyers who formed part of the bank that made the first defense of Adélio.

To support the line, the investigation lists at least four suspicions:

1) The discovery by Coaf (Financial Activities Control Council) of fractional payments of BRL 315,000 made in 2020, two years after the stabbing, by people allegedly linked to the PCC to a company named Magalhães;

2) The amount is close to the maximum amount cited by Zanone Oliveira Junior —lawyer for the firm leading the defense— in a statement to the PF in 2018 about what he would have charged if he had stayed on the case until the eventual arrival of appeals to the Federal Supreme Court, between R$ 150 thousand and R$ 300 thousand;

3) A record in Zanone’s ledger with a payment of R$ 25,000 and the heading “Adélio case”;

4) A message exchange group between lawyers in the WeChat application with the name “Adélio PCC”.

The R$ 315,000 would come from companies considered to be orange and used by the PCC’s “Aid Sector” (a structure whose function is to defray the expenses of members of the faction).

Conversations in the WeChat group accessed from Zanone’s cell phone revolved around concerns about the fact that Fernando Magalhães had acted in defense of PCC members, report the investigations.

Adélio’s initial lawyers always denied having taken on the case in search of the spotlight, but they never revealed the name of the alleged sponsors of the cause.

The version told by Zanone, which has remained the same since the beginning, is that he took up the defense after being approached by someone from an evangelical church attended by the aggressor. That person allegedly advanced him BRL 5,000 in cash, having broken off contact after the repercussions of the case increased.

Also in 2019, the PF questioned faithful who attended the same temples as Adélio, among other steps, but never found evidence of third-party financing of lawyers.

The Bolsonaro family has always advanced the thesis that Adélio acted at the behest of someone, which resulted in pressure on the PF during all the years of investigation. On several occasions, the former president internally complained about the progress of the investigation.

Before Morais, the head of the intelligence sector was Alessandro Moretti, a delegate who worked in recent years with Anderson Torres, who was Bolsonaro’s Minister of Justice and is now in prison on charges of omission in the coup attacks on January 8.

Moretti displeased the current general director, Andrei Rodrigues, during the presidential campaign. Rodrigues was Lula’s head of security and had requests denied by Moretti in the period, when the relationship between the two strained.

Rodrigues went on to call Moretti a Bolsonarist behind the scenes. On the other hand, Moretti pointed out that the requests made by the PT’s head of security were illegal and, therefore, were not met.

Moretti was appointed deputy director at Abin (Brazilian Intelligence Agency) by Luiz Fernando Corrêa, appointed by Lula (PT) to head the agency. Members of the PF and government leadership try to bar this nomination.

A Sheet found that the former head of DIP disputes the version of the current summit and claims that delegate Martin Bottaro had autonomy to conduct the investigation.

Moretti has also told people close to him that the investigation arrived at DIP when he was not yet the head, by order of the then general director Paulo Maiurino. Bottaro, according to the reports, was chosen by a delegate who is still on Lula’s security team.

Lawyer says suspicious payments are unrelated to Adélio’s defense

Lawyer Fernando Magalhães stated that the payments received by his company have nothing to do with Adélio Bispo’s defense.

According to the defender, who says he did not have access to the investigation even after being the subject of a search and seizure, the transfers received by his company “are related to the defense of the interests of clients, directly by me or contracted third parties, never, ever, having any relation with any alleged criminal faction”.

The lawyer also reinforced that he had never had a relationship with the PCC and that, if any contractor of his lawyer services has a relationship with the group, this does not link him to the “criminal gang”.

“As for the amounts received for Adélio’s defense, such contract and tabulations are exclusively related to Dr. Zanone Junior. I, Fernando Magalhães, was invited by him to assist in the defense, I suffered serious and enormous personal damage to the cause. , family and financial,” he said.

About the group of lawyers that was named Adélio PCC, the delegate states that “it was a thoughtless joke by one of the lawyers, and, due to my seriousness and commitment, I immediately reprimanded him, since the subject is serious and it did not seem acceptable to me. joke”.

The Federal Public Defender’s Office, which currently represents Adélio and acts as curator, stated that it was not notified of the new investigation by the PF and, therefore, would not comment. The PF said it does not comment on ongoing investigations.