Augusto Aras, Peroba Award 2021/22

With a loudspeaker in hand, the evening's entertainer enthusiastically announces:

- The 2021/22 "peroba" award goes to (drum roll) Antônio Augusto Brandão de Aras, 63 years old, from Bahia, professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Brasília, Attorney General of the Republic, head of the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, unanimously elected for his audacity... in "hardwood"; excuse the legal pun.

After the well-deserved applause, the floor is now taken by the journalist, who is responsible for praising the shamelessness, the impudence, the cynicism of the winner. 

Augusto Aras is not just shameless, he is the most audacious occupant of the office. He was rewarded for his inaction.

Upon receiving the 1.179-page report from the pandemic CPI on October 27th, the Attorney General announced, with a serious expression as if he were being serious, that all the material related to the request for indictment of eight people with privileged jurisdiction, including the President of the Republic, and the respective evidence, would be forwarded to the Supreme Court. It was thought then that he promised to send requests to the Supreme Court to open investigations. A grave mistake.

In this way, the deputy chief was probably trying to deceive the gullible. When questioned about why he would share the material with the Supreme Court, he explained that this way the justices of the highest court would also exercise "the relevant role of controlling legality."

A tall tale.

According to Article 129 of the Federal Constitution, it is the responsibility of the Public Prosecutor's Office to pursue civil or criminal liability against offenders by filing charges with the competent court; the Supreme Court in Bolsonaro's case. It is solely the Public Prosecutor's Office that has the authority to initiate criminal proceedings. If the Attorney General does not respond positively to the requests made by the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the pandemic, the Supreme Court cannot act. The Public Prosecutor's Office – and no one else – is responsible for indicting the president, who, as everyone knows, has special jurisdiction. In other words, Aras did nothing more than what he always does when the criminal is Bolsonaro: delay, shirk responsibility to protect his "friend." In exchange for what? He claims he acts as always, in a completely selfless manner. Or rather, with the objective of properly fulfilling his function.

In the present case, the Attorney General sent ten requests for action to Ministers Dias Toffoli, Cármen Lúcia, Rosa Weber, Ricardo Lewandowski, Roberto Barroso, and Nunes Marques, based on investigations conducted by the Senate CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry), which, by his order, are being processed under judicial secrecy. By "action," he means the well-known preliminary investigations, officially called "reports of fact," to investigate the accusations against Bolsonaro, parliamentarians, and ministers who were the subject of indictment requests made in the final report of the Covid CPI.

In nearly six months of work, the Covid CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) collected more than 50 testimonies, broke 251 confidentiality agreements, analyzed 9,4 terabytes of documents, and held more than 60 meetings.

Preliminary investigations are a tool used to analyze whether there is sufficient evidence to open inquiries. This means that, according to the head of the Public Prosecutor's Office, in six months of work, the senators, watched live daily by tens of millions of Brazilians, have not gathered sufficient evidence or indications to effectively open inquiries. Further investigation is needed.

It's not surprising, since "dragging things out" while waiting for Jair Messias's term to end has been the Attorney General's consistent tactic. In December, pressured by the Supreme Court, he drafted a document stating that, in the last year, he had opened 25 preliminary investigations to examine the president's conduct. He sent the report to the Supreme Court while washing his hands of the matter, like Pontius Pilate. It's worth remembering that these preliminary investigations are conducted within the Attorney General's Office and that there is no deadline for deciding whether to bring charges to the Supreme Court or close the case.

This time, the Attorney General went even further, raising "questions of legality" regarding the work of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry. Pretending to share responsibility with the Supreme Court, Aras referred to the so-called reservation of jurisdiction, a principle of law that states that certain acts can only be determined by a judge or magistrate, and not by third parties – even if those third parties have been granted investigative powers similar to those of the Judiciary. Translated into our Portuguese, for ordinary people, the senators overstepped the mark, for example by ordering the preventive detention of those under investigation or issuing search and seizure warrants.

In other words, the problem was the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI), not the criminal acts that caused the deaths of 620 people. 

In response to this maneuver, the Senate Human Rights Commission approved an invitation for Augusto Aras to appear and explain the measures he has taken regarding the final report of the Parliamentary Commission, especially concerning requests for the indictment of individuals with privileged jurisdiction. He has not yet indicated whether he intends to attend the summons. 

The Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) attributed nine crimes to Bolsonaro. Of the common crimes, as defined in the Penal Code, the most serious one imputed to the president is that of causing an epidemic, the penalty for which ranges from 10 to 15 years in prison. If deaths result, the punishment is doubled.

He was also accused of crimes against humanity and of violating social rights, for acting in a manner incompatible with the dignity, honor, and decorum of his office. These crimes could be used to initiate impeachment proceedings, provided the Chamber authorized the initiation of the procedure. This is impossible when one knows that the Speaker of the Chamber is named Arthur César Pereira de Lira. 

Conclusion: All this work could be thrown in the trash by the actions of the Attorney General. 

“It is unacceptable for us to stand idly by while the Attorney General takes no action whatsoever. Faced with these events, the only remedy left for Parliament is a new Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry,” reacted the vice-president of the CPI, Senator Randolfe Rodrigues, when he filed, on January 11th, on behalf of the Pandemic Observatory, a request for the establishment of a new investigation into the actions and omissions of the federal government in addressing the Covid-19 pandemic starting in November 2021. This investigation would address the delay and insufficiency in childhood vaccination, the insufficient provision of booster doses in 2022, the inadequacy of the testing policy, the data blackout at the Ministry of Health, and President Jair Bolsonaro's attacks on the technicians of the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) who approved childhood vaccination.

When filing the petition, Randolfe Rodrigues guaranteed that the first person to be called to testify would be the head of the Attorney General's Office, Augusto Aras, to explain the status of the investigations initiated from the previous report.

The opening of a new CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) is unlikely to happen; it's practically impossible, especially since it doesn't have the support of the Senate president.  

"Randolfe lives for Carnival," Bolsonaro reacted.

Regarding Augusto Aras, irony was not permitted, after all, at least in theory, the Attorney General has the noble task of representing and defending the interests of society, as well as the so-called inalienable rights to life, liberty, and health. But in practice, the theory is different.

As lawyer Juliana Vieira dos Santos, a member of the Arns Commission, stated in a profile of Aras published in the French magazine L'Express, he "shamelessly disregards his mission, even as Brazil faces unprecedented institutional erosion under Bolsonaro." 

Long live the PEROBA 2020/21 award! And long live IMPUNITY!