Genoino requests permanent house arrest.

The defense of former federal deputy José Genoino today (17) asked the president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Joaquim Barbosa, for definitive house arrest. Genoino was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison in Criminal Action 470, the mensalão trial, but, due to his state of health, he is serving temporary house arrest until Wednesday (19).

According to lawyer Luiz Fernando Pacheco, Genoino suffers from severe heart disease and is unable to serve his sentence in prison because he is an "elderly patient who suffered an aortic dissection." He stated that the prison system is not equipped to provide adequate medical treatment for the former congressman. "Any other solution would unnecessarily expose the patient to a high risk of death, considering the possibility of blood clots, hypertensive crises, or hemorrhagic or cardiological events," the lawyer affirmed.

Genoino's arrest was ordered in November of last year, and he was taken to the Papuda Prison in the Federal District. However, by order of Minister Joaquim Barbosa, he was granted the right to serve temporary house arrest for 90 days. During his time in Papuda, the former congressman fell ill and was taken to a private hospital.

In a letter sent to the president of the Supreme Federal Court in December to inform him of the conditions of local prisons, Judge Bruno André Silva Ribeiro, of the Criminal Enforcement Court (VEP) of the Federal District, stated that the Papuda Prison has the conditions to offer medical treatment to Genoino and that he should return to prison.

According to the judge, 306 inmates with hypertension, 16 with heart disease, 10 with cancer, 56 with diabetes, 65 with HIV, 14 with hepatitis, 41 with hepatitis C, 18 with tuberculosis, and 289 with asthma are serving sentences in prisons in the Federal District.