PMDB leader Eduardo Cunha becomes a defendant in the Supreme Court.
By a majority of 6 votes to 3, the ministers accepted the complaint from the Attorney General's Office (PGR) accusing the congressman of presenting false documents; according to the accusation, Cunha presented the document in question to suspend an ongoing process in the Rio de Janeiro State Court of Auditors that was investigating his management of the local State Housing Company.
Deborah Zampier
Reporter from Agência Brasil
Brasilia – The leader of the PMDB in the Chamber of Deputies, federal deputy Eduardo Cunha (PMDB-RJ), became a defendant in a criminal case at the Supreme Federal Court (STF) this afternoon (21). By a majority of 6 votes to 3, the ministers accepted the complaint from the Attorney General's Office (PGR) accusing the parliamentarian of presenting false documents.
According to the accusation, Cunha presented a false document to suspend an ongoing process in the Court of Auditors of the State of Rio de Janeiro that was investigating his management of the Rio de Janeiro State Housing Company (Cehab-RJ). The presentation of the false documents led to the suspension of the process in the Court of Auditors.
According to the congressman's defense, the case should be dismissed because the prosecutor responsible for the falsification, Elio Fischberg, took full responsibility. The lawyer also argued that there is no evidence that Cunha acted with the intention of committing a crime when presenting the documents.
The argument was accepted only by ministers Luiz Fux, Antonio Dias Toffoli, and Ricardo Lewandowski. They stated that a document issued by a prosecutor presupposes public faith, and that the politician was misled. "A person can use a false document, but it is necessary to know if they use it knowing that the document is false," said Fux.
Most of the ministers, however, followed the vote of the rapporteur, Minister Gilmar Mendes. According to the minister, although there is no proof that Cunha personally participated in the falsifications, there is sufficient evidence that he knew the documents were false and presented them anyway – especially since the information concerned him and the politician was the main party interested in suspending the proceedings.
Last to vote, the president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Joaquim Barbosa, said that the claims of ignorance regarding the falsification lack credibility. "The information in the document refers to himself [Cunha], it concerns the fact that he knew it to be false and it was used to have an inspection process by the Court of Auditors dismissed," he emphasized.
Editing: Aécio Amado