Gurgel insists on closing AP 470 ahead of schedule.

Iolando Lourenço*
Reporter from Agência Brasil

Brasilia - Brazil's Attorney General, Roberto Gurgel, today advocated, during a visit to the National Congress, for a swift conclusion to the trial of Criminal Action 470, the so-called "mensalão" scandal, so that the convicted deputies lose their mandates and the other convicted individuals are imprisoned. According to him, it is necessary to give effect to the decision of the Supreme Federal Court (STF). "We have a magnificent decision, but we need it to be effective."

"It is necessary that the decision produces its effects, that the parliamentarians who hold mandates lose their mandates, that those who have been sentenced to prison terms be returned to prison. It is necessary, in short, to demonstrate once and for all that the Brazilian justice system reaches everyone, even those in the highest strata of society and power," he said.

According to Gurgel, the trial of Criminal Action 470 was the most important event that occurred during his tenure as head of the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF), although other important events also took place during that period. "This trial represents a milestone, not only in the history of the Brazilian judiciary, but of the country itself," he noted.

Gurgel informed that he will certainly participate in one or another session of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) destined for the judgment of appeals by those convicted in the Mensalão scandal, scheduled for next August. The prosecutor said that he certainly will not be present at the end of the trial. "The Public Prosecutor's Office is impartial, and the colleague who is chosen as Attorney General will continue this work without any difference," said the prosecutor.

*Ivan Richard contributed to this report.