Technicians warn about Moraes’ lack of video expertise in Rome

Experts from the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) and the defense of businessman Roberto Mantovani consider that, without a professional examination of the video from Rome airport that shows the confusion involving the family of minister Alexandre de Moraes, in July, there is a risk of manipulation or editing of the material, even if unintentional, which would compromise the clarification of the case.

Since the recordings were sent from Italy to Brazil, in September, the material has been kept under lock and key by Minister Dias Toffoli at the Federal Supreme Court (STF), where the case is investigated. Twice, he denied Mantovani’s defense a copy of the video. He only authorized experts, lawyers and prosecutors to have “access” to the material within the STF, to watch the video under Federal Police surveillance and with the signing of a confidentiality agreement.

The PGR, which is responsible for knowing in depth what happened to determine whether or not there was a crime in the episode, as well as the defense of Mantovani, identified by Moraes as the alleged aggressor, presented Toffoli with technical reports from their experts arguing that, if they were not If authentic copies are released to them, it is unfeasible to carry out the examination.

To date, there has been no examination of the material, not even by the PF. An “analysis” was carried out by an ordinary police officer from the corporation, in a text full of imprecise expressions – such as “apparently” and “seems” – to narrate the altercation that would have occurred between the family of Moraes and Mantovani at the door of the VIP room of the Rome international airport.

Based on three recordings that arrived from Italy, agent Clésio Leão de Carvalho told the story that Mantovani had attacked the minister’s son, corroborating Moraes’ version. Even without having heard what happened at the scene, the police officer attributed the dispute to the businessman’s wife, who was reportedly angry at the fact that she was not allowed into the VIP room, which would have been granted to Moraes and his family.

“Apparently, he hit the victim in the face, who had glasses dislocated (or fallen on his face) […] Roberto Mantovani raised his right hand and hit Alexandre Barci De Moraes’ face (or glasses), displacing the minister’s son’s accessory from his face. […] Based on Alexandre Barci’s subsequent posture after being hit in the face by Roberto Mantovani’s hand, the glasses would not have fallen to the floor, as BARCI did not actually bend down to retrieve the glasses, having just repositioned the accessory on the face”, he wrote.

When this “analysis” was released in the investigation, the National Association of Federal Criminal Experts (APCF) criticized the procedure, without the participation of a professional in the category. “It is worrying that non-expert procedures can be received as if they were “expert evidence”, since they do not meet the legal premises, such as impartiality, suspicion and not necessarily having any confirmation bias, which are required of official experts of criminal nature”, said the entity in a note, at the beginning of October.

Mantovani’s defense challenged the PF agent’s version of the facts, pointing out that she omitted information recorded by the Italian police when analyzing the images: that Moraes’ son had, before, “lightly touched the back of the antagonist’s head”. “At approximately 18:39:12 the only physical contact worthy of mention is detectable, which occurred between Mantovani Roberto and the son of the personality [Alexandre Barci]. In the circumstance, the latter, probably exasperated by the insistent verbal attacks received, shook his left upper limb, lightly touching the back of the antagonist’s head, who, at the same time, performed the same action with his right arm, slightly impacting Alexandre Barci’s glasses. Moraes.”

To really clarify what happened, the PGR asked Toffoli for a copy. To this end, he presented the minister with a technical opinion that says that the minister’s decision to deny this extraction “is in line with the best practices adopted in the market and in academia”.

“This is a technically quite reckless and unnecessary determination, given that the device in question and the data kept there, for various factors, could be unduly deleted or edited, intentionally or not. In short, good practice recommends that all expert and investigative analysis, whenever technically possible, be carried out on a working copy that is absolutely faithful to the original, precisely to avoid contamination of the evidence or digital proof”, says the opinion, signed by the PGR expert Thiago Caparelli Navarrete Ordinas, head of the National Expertise in Information and Communication Technology (ICT); and Winicius Ferraz Neres, coordinator of the Digital and Electronic Evidence Research Coordination (Code).

They suggested that the minister authorize two PGR employees to appear at the STF to make a copy, in order not only to preserve the recording kept in court, but also to ensure, with its own technology, that the copy is completely faithful to the material. “This procedure is considered extremely important, as it will guarantee the integrity of digital evidence throughout the judicial process,” they wrote.

After that, “in a controlled environment” and with appropriate equipment, they would produce a report identifying data on the recording of images, the cameras that recorded the altercation, date and time of the event, among other information of interest to the investigation, with qualitative analysis and descriptive of the events recorded on video”, without thereby “unnecessarily exposing the privacy of third parties”.

Mantovani’s defense, in turn, challenged Toffoli’s decision not only by presenting the most complete version of the Italian police, but also with a technical report by private expert Ricardo Molina, hired by the businessman’s defenders. Molina also deems it necessary to obtain a copy not only to preserve the material stored in the STF, but also to check how the recording was made, whether it is complete and edited. “It is completely unfeasible to carry out any perceptive and exhaustive analysis without direct access to the video, through specific programs installed on our machines”, wrote the expert.

He argued that a clone of the video would not in any way affect the recording held by the STF and that there are simple technologies to ensure that the copy is identical. He also criticized the “analysis” by the police agent, who did not demonstrate the integrity of the file received from Italy, nor how it was manipulated and executed to compose the narrative, based on 146 frames. He noticed, for example, that although the agent describes the scenes recording the hour, minute and second of each highlighted act, such data is not found in the images. In other words, there is no guarantee that the sequence of events is faithful to the facts as they unfolded.

“It is not even known whether these were the only files sent, as there was no rigor regarding the documentation related to the maintenance of the chain of custody”, Ricardo Molina also noted. He added that the digital file in the STF’s possession is a copy of the original recording made in Italy. “It is not even known whether other copies were produced: would APF Clésio Leão de Carvalho, responsible for ‘Information 004/23’, have worked with the file received directly from Italy? Wasn’t a working backup created as usual? This would be unusual (as well as risky).”

The “chain of custody” is, basically, the description of how the material was obtained, stored and handled in a way that preserves its integrity, so that it can be considered valid as evidence. As shown by People’s Gazettethe lack of expertise also led Mantovani’s defense to question Toffoli whether the recording is complete, without tampering.

This is the same allegation that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) made to question and annul, in the STF, Odebrecht’s evidence that recorded payments to the PT member. As there was no such guarantee, minister Ricardo Lewandowski annulled the corruption and laundering actions against him. Afterwards, Dias Toffoli annulled the validity of this evidence – copies of systems – for all Lava Jato defendants.

After denying the copy to the PGR and Mantovani’s defense, Toffoli ordered the delegate in charge of the investigation at the PF, Hiroshi de Araujo Sakaki, to designate an expert to “monitor” the access of those involved to the video, within the STF. The lawyers of Alexandre de Moraes and his family, admitted by the minister as “prosecution assistants”, have already asked Toffoli for a date to be able to see the recordings inside the court, without asking for expertise on the material.