Selective justice: the PSDB's mensalão scandal changes jurisdiction.
After a year and two months of inactivity, the case of suspected illegal campaign financing for former governor Eduardo Azeredo, which occurred in 1998 and has still not been judged 17 years later, should resume when it reaches the Court of Justice of Minas Gerais; however, according to Eduardo Guimarães, from the Blog da Cidadania, 'it is very likely that this partisan and selective Justice system will invent some other maneuver to ensure that the accusations against Azeredo, a member of the PSDB party and closely linked to the new "golden boy" of the Brazilian right, Aécio Neves, expire.'
By Eduardo Guimarães, from Citizenship Blog
At a time when the justice system is acting with extreme speed and decisiveness in dealing with corruption cases involving the PT (Workers' Party), what should be good news ends up causing even more outrage at the selectivity of that same "justice" system.
The most scandalous case involving the Brazilian Judiciary is undoubtedly the trial of the so-called "Tucano mensalão" (monthly allowance scandal), which took place in 1998 and 17 years later has still not been judged, while the PT's mensalão case was judged and concluded in just 7 years.
If only the time elapsed since the formal accusation by the Public Prosecutor's Office against the main figure in the PSDB's mensalão scandal, former senator and congressman Eduardo Azeredo from Minas Gerais, is considered, this Thursday, after a year and two months of inactivity, the case finally started "moving forward" again.
On February 7th of last year, the Attorney General of the Republic, Rodrigo Janot, sent a recommendation to the STF (Supreme Federal Court) that then-federal deputy Eduardo Azeredo (PSDB-MG) be sentenced, in the Minas Gerais mensalão scandal, to 22 years in prison for money laundering and embezzlement (misappropriation of public funds).
Click on the image below to read the Attorney General's complaint against Azeredo.
Twelve days after the Attorney General's complaint, Azeredo resigned from his position as a federal deputy for Minas Gerais in order to delay the proceedings, which, given that the defendant was a deputy, would be judged quickly by the Supreme Federal Court.
The delaying tactic worked. Unlike what it did in the PT's mensalão case, the Supreme Court accepted Azeredo's maneuver and allowed the case to be sent back to the first instance court in Minas Gerais.
There, as in São Paulo, the PSDB party is in charge, so the process was stalled for a year.
Since society seems to have given up on seeing this case judged, credit must be given to Folha de São Paulo, which denounced the scandalous situation of Azeredo's criminal cover-up by the same Judiciary that was so quick to condemn members of the Workers' Party.
The Folha article was published shortly after the judge who was supposed to move the case forward (after it had been stalled for over a year) declined jurisdiction to do so.
What happened was this: on April 11th, two weeks before the Folha newspaper report, Judge Melissa Pinheiro Costa Lage was chosen to head the 9th Court, replacing Neide da Silva Martins, who retired, according to the São Paulo newspaper's report. However, two days later (April 13th), she declined jurisdiction over the case investigating the crimes of embezzlement and money laundering that occurred during Eduardo Brando Azeredo's campaign for governor of Minas Gerais in 1998.
Judge Melissa Pinheiro Costa Lage cited the State Constitution to make this decision – the constitutional text provides, in its article 106, for the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of Minas Gerais (TJMG) to judge a state secretary, as well as to decide on any possible separation of the proceedings in relation to the other defendants.
It turns out that a Secretary of State appointed by Governor Fernando Pimentel is involved in the PSDB's mensalão scandal, so now it is up to the Court of Justice of Minas Gerais to judge the case involving Azeredo.
Click on the image below to see the progress of the case involving Azeredo.
In theory, the case should move forward again when it reaches the TJMG (Court of Justice of Minas Gerais). However, as is known, since 1998 this case has taken years to move from one place to another, in a justice system that, when the case involves the PT (Workers' Party), moves at Formula 1 speed, and when it involves the PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party), moves at a snail's pace.
Since the decision to send the "mensalão tucano" (PSDB corruption scandal) case to the TJMG (Court of Justice of Minas Gerais) was made this Thursday, April 16th, this blog will begin counting down the time it will take for it to reach its destination.
However, even if it doesn't take years, it's very likely that this partisan and selective justice system will invent some other maneuver to ensure that the accusations against Azeredo, a member of the PSDB party and closely linked to the new "golden boy" of the Brazilian right, Aécio Neves, are dismissed due to the statute of limitations.