STF rejects another complaint it had accepted against Lira – 06/06/2023 – Politics

The First Class of the STF (Federal Supreme Court) decided this Tuesday (6) to reject a complaint that the court had already accepted against the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL).

Although it is unusual for the Supreme Court to reject an already accepted complaint, the court also did this in 2021 in another case involving Lira, that of the so-called “Quadrilhão do PP”.

Ministers André Mendonça, Dias Toffoli, Luís Roberto Barroso, Alexandre de Moraes —who modified his previous vote— and Luiz Fux voted in this way.

The action that the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday was one of Lira’s main pending issues, which had completed more than two and a half years of paralyzed proceedings after a request for review (more time for analysis) by Minister Dias Toffoli.

The Supreme already had a majority against Lira, but the ministers responded and allowed André Mendonça to cast a new vote to replace that of his predecessor, retired minister Marco Aurélio Mello, which benefited the mayor.

The court’s argument is that legislative changes influence the action against the mayor and that the PGR (Attorney General’s Office) itself withdrew the complaint. Therefore, Mendonça could vote in the case.

Lira was accused of corruption by the PGR (Attorney General of the Republic), after a former adviser was caught carrying R$ 106,400 in cash, he received approval from the Supreme Court in 2019, but the process has not progressed since then.

The case comes from Operation Lava Jato and returned to the supreme court amid a crisis between the mayor and the Planalto Palace.

The complaint against Lira was accepted by STF ministers in 2019, 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 a view before the formal closure of this phase.

Last April, the PGR, already under the command of Augusto Aras, went back and asked the STF to reject the complaint it had filed against the mayor.

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.

Deputy Arthur Lira’s defense also stated to the Supreme Court that the complaint filed by the Attorney General’s Office was based only on the word of a whistleblower and presented 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.

Ministers Marco Aurélio Mello (retired), Luís Roberto Barroso and Alexandre de Moraes had already voted against Lira’s appeal. But Mendonça’s vote, replacing Marco Aurélio’s, and Alexandre de Moraes changed the scoreboard.

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

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.

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.