Valério's return to BH exposes Barbosa's wastefulness.
The media spectacle provided by arrest warrants signed by Joaquim Barbosa proves detrimental to public coffers; the illegality of transfers to Brasília is being demonstrated by the courts; after the return of four convicts to Belo Horizonte, now it is the advertising executive Marcos Valério who requests to serve his sentence near his domicile, as permitted by law; the manifesto of jurists, in November, denouncing irregularities committed by the president of the Supreme Federal Court proves to be just and current; full text
247 - The media spectacle provided by the arrest warrants signed by the president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Joaquim Barbosa, against those convicted in Criminal Action 470, the so-called mensalão scandal, proved to be irregular and costly to public coffers. One by one, the decisions made by Barbosa to transfer prisoners to Brasília, instead of serving their sentences in prisons in the same region where they have permanent residence, are being reversed. On Monday the 23rd, two former executives of Banco Rural and former congressman Romeu Queiroz managed to obtain a court order to leave the Papuda Complex in Brasília, where they were sent by Barbosa, to serve their sentences in the José Maria Alckmin penitentiary, in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte. Previously, the former president of the bank, Katia Abreu, had already obtained her transfer from the Federal District to Minas Gerais.
This Wednesday, the 25th, advertising executive Marcos Valério asked the court to carry out the same procedure, transferring him from Papuda prison to Belo Horizonte.
The series of judicial decisions regarding the adjustment of sentence enforcement highlights the irregularities contained in the decrees signed by Barbosa and also the waste of public funds they caused. To give more impact to the imprisonments, Barbosa ordered the transfer of the convicts to Brasília, without presenting any legal basis for these decisions. Several trips were made on flights by the Brazilian Air Force and the Federal Police, including those that took former PT presidents José Dirceu and José Genoíno from São Paulo to the federal capital. The president of the Supreme Court also disregarded the plenary's rulings on semi-open regimes for the convicts, effectively transforming them into closed regimes.
At the time of the first arrests, in November, the irregularities committed by Barbosa in his arrest warrants were denounced to the public through a manifesto by judges and personalities from different sectors. Today, this manifesto appears to be a premonitory document, which anticipated the errors that the Justice system would later point out. In the name of sponsoring a media spectacle, Joaquim Barbosa did not hesitate to make his own law, now subjected to judicial review.
Below, the extract from the jurists’ manifesto, dated November 19th:
MANIFESTO OF REJECTION OF ILLEGAL DETENTIONS
To: BRAZILIAN PEOPLE
The decision by the president of the Supreme Federal Court to order the arrest of the defendants in Criminal Action 470 on the day of the proclamation of the Republic clearly demonstrates haste and illegality. Once again, the objective of making the trial an example in the fight against corruption prevailed.
Without any merely defensible reason, an air parade was organized, paid for with public money and with strong media appeal, to take all the defendants to Brasília. It makes no sense to transfer defendants who should begin serving their sentences in semi-open prisons in their states of origin to the closed regime at Papuda prison. Only the desire for spectacle justifies it.
This measure, taken unilaterally by the reporting judge Joaquim Barbosa, causes us deep concern and constitutes yet another regrettable exceptional chapter in a trial marked by serious violations of constitutional guarantees.
The imprecision and legal fragility of the warrants issued during a national holiday, without defining the prison regime to which each defendant would be entitled, are inconsistent with the stature of the Brazilian Supreme Court.
Joaquim Barbosa's haste also led to an unacceptable mismatch of information between the Criminal Enforcement Court of the Federal District and the Federal Police, responsible for executing the warrants.
The president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) requested the arrests, but only issued the sentencing orders, which should have guided the judge responsible for enforcing the sentences, 48 hours after everyone was already in custody. This is a blatant disregard for the Law of Penal Executions, raising doubts about Joaquim Barbosa's preparedness or good faith in conducting the proceedings.
An unacceptable error that compromises the image and reputation of the Supreme Federal Court and is already provoking reactions from society and the legal community. The Supreme Court needs to react so as not to become a hostage of its president.
The undeniable truth is that all were imprisoned in a closed regime before the "final judgment" for all the crimes they are accused of before the court. Even the defendants who should have served their sentences in a semi-open regime were incarcerated, with full restriction of liberty, without the Supreme Federal Court justifying the inconsistency between the decision to divide the serving of sentences and the situation in which the defendants find themselves today.
More than a violation of guarantees, the case of former PT president José Genoino is dramatic given his serious health condition. It illustrates how the appeal for a media-driven solution can override the common sense of the Justice system and respect for human integrity.
These developments tarnish any intention of making the execution of sentences in the Mensalão trial the prime example of the fight against corruption. They also make the majority decision by the Supreme Court justices to divide the serving of sentences into parts, ordering the immediate imprisonment of those defendants who still have the right to appeal, reckless.
They want to close AP 470 at all costs, sacrificing due process. The trial, which began by denying the defendants the right to a second instance of jurisdiction, experienced another dark chapter on this Republic Day holiday.
We suggest to the Supreme Court justices, who last week allowed the splitting of the arrests, that they consider the gravity of the events of the last few days. We do not write on behalf of the defendants, but on behalf of a significant portion of society that is perplexed by the media exploitation of the arrests and fears not only for the fate of the defendants, but also for the future of the democratic rule of law in Brazil.
19 November 2013
Lawyers and attorneys
- Celso Bandeira de Mello - jurist, professor emeritus at PUC-SP; Dalmo de Abreu Dallari - jurist, professor emeritus at USP; and others.
Below is a news article from 247 about Marcos Valério's request to serve his sentence in Belo Horizonte:
247 - Businessman Marcos Valério is expected to be the next prisoner from Criminal Action 470 to be transferred to serve his sentence in his home state. The defense team for the operator of the 'mensalão' (monthly allowance) scheme has filed a request with the Supreme Federal Court (STF) for his transfer from the Papuda Penitentiary Complex in Brasília to Belo Horizonte.
On Monday (23), two more prisoners from AP 470 were transferred from Papuda to Minas, former deputy Romeu Queiroz and former Banco Rural director José Roberto Salgado.
In the petition to the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Valério's defense, represented by lawyer Marcelo Leonardo, requests that his client serve his sentence at the Nelson Hungria maximum-security prison in the capital of Minas Gerais.
He claims that the measure fulfills a request from Valério's family, since his mother is elderly and would have difficulty getting around to visit him, in addition to the high cost of airfare to Brasília.
"It's a request from him and his family. It has been very costly for the family to travel to Brasília every week, and his mother, who is elderly, would like to visit him but cannot take a plane," the lawyer explained in an article published on the Folha de São Paulo newspaper website.
Marcos Valério was convicted by the Supreme Court of forming a criminal organization, active corruption, embezzlement, money laundering, and tax evasion, and sentenced to 40 years, 4 months, and 6 days in prison, in addition to paying R$ 2,78 million in fines.
In addition to Romeu Queiroz and Roberto Salgado, the Supreme Federal Court has already authorized the transfer of five more prisoners from Papuda prison, including Vinicius Samarane, also a former executive of Banco Rural, who is also in Minas Gerais.
Despite being released to serve their sentences in their respective states for the Mensalão corruption scandal, former congressmen Pedro Henry (PP-MT) and Pedro Corrêa (PP-PE) had to spend Christmas in Brasília. They are expected to be transferred to Mato Grosso and Pernambuco by the end of the week.
According to information from the Ministry of Justice, the two have not yet traveled because there were no available seats on the flights. They are expected to be transported in handcuffs on a commercial flight and monitored by two prison officers. Henry was sentenced to 7 years and 2 months in prison for corruption and money laundering. Corrêa was convicted of the same crimes and will serve the same sentence.
Also convicted in the Mensalão scheme, former congressmen Roberto Jefferson (PTB) and José Genoino (PT-SP) are still awaiting a decision from the president of the Supreme Court, Joaquim Barbosa, to determine where they will serve their sentences, as they have requested house arrest.