STF judges case of Arthur Lira defendant for corruption; understand – 06/06/2023 – Power

One of the main pending issues of the mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), completed more than two and a half years of paralyzed proceedings and may be tried again this Tuesday (6) at the STF (Federal Supreme Court) after request view (more time for analysis) of Minister Dias Toffoli.

The follow-up to the complaint in which Lira is accused of corruption, after a former advisor was caught carrying BRL 106,400 in cash, received approval from the Supreme Court in 2019, but the process has not progressed since then.

Dias Toffoli asked for more time to analyze the records in November 2020 and only recently returned them to resume the procedure. During the period, the first rapporteur of the case, Minister Marco Aurélio Mello, retired, a vacancy that was occupied in court by André Mendonça.

In the complaint, the then Attorney General of the Republic Raquel Dodge asked for Lira’s conviction for passive corruption, a crime with a penalty of up to 12 years in prison. The play also included the crime of money laundering, but ministers have already rejected this framework.

Last April, however, the PGR (Attorney General’s Office) went back and asked the STF to reject the complaint it had filed against the mayor.

The mayor has always denied the accusations and has said there is no evidence linking him to cash.

What is the origin of case? The money was seized from then-parliamentary advisor Jaymerson Gomes de Amorim in February 2012, when he tried to board a flight at Congonhas Airport carrying the amount in his clothes and next to his body.

The plane ticket had been purchased with Lira’s credit card and, according to the investigation, the two exchanged messages and phone calls on the day of the episode.

The Attorney General concluded that the money transported by the advisor consisted of a payment made to Lira by Francisco Colombo, then president of the state-owned CBTU (Companhia Brasileira de Trens Urbanos), to remain in office.

At the time, the company was part of the hierarchy of the Ministry of Cities, commanded by the PP in the Dilma Rousseff (PT) government.

O what does the complaint say? The Public Prosecutor’s Office uses in the prosecution, among other evidence, testimonies of the money changer Alberto Youssef, pivot of Operation Lava Jato, to establish the link between the CBTU leader and Lira. Francisco Colombo died in 2014.

One of the elements of the accusation are records of dozens of visits by the then president of the state-owned company to Youssef’s office in São Paulo. Lira also frequented the headquarters of the money changer companies.

The complaint also states that there are records of frequent calls between the deputy and the then CBTU leader at the time the money was seized.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office also says that the advisor, when caught, “stumbled and did not present just cause for the significant amount of money” he was carrying. He would return to Brasilia by flight less than two hours after arriving in São Paulo.

According to the complaint, the then Chamber employee gave contradictory explanations, first saying he was unaware of Lira and the purchase through the credit card and later stating that he acquired the tickets without the knowledge of the deputy.

What did that adviser say? In testimony at the inquiry, the advisor stated that the money transported would be used to buy a pickup truck.

And Lira’s defense? Deputy Arthur Lira’s defense states that the complaint presented by the Attorney General’s Office “is based only on the word of an informer, who presents inconsistencies and weaknesses demonstrated to the court”.

“After receiving the complaint, the law was changed, and the process can no longer be opened based only on the whistleblower’s narrative. This is one of the foundations of the appeal presented”, said the lawyer Pierpaolo Bottini, who defends the president of the Chamber .

The aforementioned law is the so-called anti-crime package, enacted at the end of 2019.

Which is complaint status? The complaint against Lira has already been accepted by the ministers of the STF, but the defense filed an appeal against the measure called declaratory embargoes. There was a majority in 2020 for the rejection of these embargoes, but Toffoli then made the request for views before the formal closure of this phase.

Ministers Marco Aurélio Mello (retired), Luís Roberto Barroso and Alexandre de Moraes have already voted against Lira’s appeal. Toffoli and Luiz Fux still need to vote. Although André Mendonça took over the rapporteurship with the retirement of the former member of the group, Marco Aurélio’s vote continues.

What is the justification of the PGR for its new argument in the case? Now, the Deputy Attorney General of the Republic Lindôra Araújo asked for the withdrawal of the complaint citing the absence of just cause, with exception in the event of the emergence of new evidence.

Lindôra cited as an argument the new legislation of the anti-crime package, enacted in 2019, and the STF’s new understanding of the insufficiency, to support the opening of criminal proceedings, of testimonies by whistleblowers which are not accompanied by supporting evidence.

The demonstration was in response to a request made by Lira’s defense in the process. The case is being reported by Minister André Mendonça.