Janot wants immediate imprisonment of defendants in AP 470.

247 - Brazil's Attorney General, Rodrigo Janot, has submitted an opinion to the Supreme Federal Court (STF) requesting the immediate execution of sentences for 23 of the 25 defendants in Criminal Action 470, better known as the mensalão scandal. According to the Attorney General, even defendants entitled to an appeal that could lead to the reversal of a conviction for a specific crime, known as dissenting opinions, can begin serving their sentences due to other convictions. This would be the case for former minister José Dirceu, former PT president José Genoíno, and congressman João Paulo Cunha, for example. 

Janot only refrained from ordering the imprisonment of all 25 defendants because former PP advisor João Cláudio Genú and former Bonus Banval brokerage partner Breno Fischberg were convicted of a single crime with the right to appeals. Therefore, in Janot's view, the imprisonment of these defendants can only occur once their appeals have been judged by the Supreme Federal Court (STF).

In addition to the immediate imprisonment of defendants entitled to appeals, Janot says in his opinion that the 13 convicts entitled to only one type of appeal, known as declaratory appeals, should also be imprisoned immediately after the trial which will begin this Wednesday (13). As declaratory appeals serve only to clarify points considered obscure or contradictory in the STF decision that convicted the defendants, it is not possible to reverse the convictions.