President of the Chamber is cited in a complaint about the payment of R$ 106,400 in bribes by former president of CBTU.| Photo: Joedson Alves/EFE

Ministers who are part of the 1st Panel of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) judge this Tuesday (6) an appeal by the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), against a complaint of passive corruption presented by the Attorney General’s Office Republic (PGR) in 2018 for alleged receipt of bribes.

The appeal has been stopped since 2020 after Minister Dias Toffoli asked for a view of the process and released it for trial last week. The magistrate was waiting for a pronouncement from the PGR on the case, which manifested itself by filing the complaint.

According to the complaint, an advisor to Lira was caught at Congonhas Airport, in São Paulo, in 2012, trying to fly to Brasília with R$ 106,400 in cash, which would have been paid by the then president of the Companhia Brasileira de Trens Urbanos ( CBTU), Francisco Carlos Caballero Colombo, to gain political support to remain in office.

Lira was the party leader at the time and claimed to have paid for the advisor’s tickets, but that he was unaware of the money and would not receive the amount. The money was mentioned in collaborations between money changer Alberto Youssef and assistant Rafael Lopes.