STF sends another lawsuit against former president Jair Bolsonaro to the DF Justice

Minister Dias Toffoli, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), determined this Monday (19) that another lawsuit involving former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), for the crime of injuria, be tried by the Justice of the Federal District. The decision is the second in a lawsuit filed by federal deputy Maria do Rosário (PT-RS) in 2014, after the then deputy spoke against her in the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies.

The magistrate determines to send the case to the first instance because Bolsonaro no longer has jurisdiction due to the prerogative of his function, which removes the original competence of the STF to judge the case.

“In view of the foregoing, I recognize the incompetence of this Supreme Court to prosecute the fact and I welcome the manifestation of the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, determining the remittance of the records to the Court of Justice of the Federal District and Territories, for distribution to one of the Criminal Courts of the Special Judiciary Circumscription from Brasília/DF, with the adoption of the pertinent measures”, wrote Toffoli in the decision.

The proceedings against Bolsonaro had been suspended since February 2019, due to the temporary immunity granted to the then President of the Republic to respond to facts of a criminal nature prior to his mandate. The former president even posted a retraction note on social networks for the lines against the deputy, who kept the case active in court.

In the statement, Bolsonaro publicly apologized for the episode in which he said that the petista “did not deserve to be raped for being ugly and not her type”. Bolsonaro said this during a discussion with the parliamentarian in the Chamber of Deputies, in 2014, and reiterated his speech the following day in an interview with the newspaper Zero Hora.