Maia wants to vote on anti-corruption bill by the end of the year.

Iolando Lourenço and Luciano Nascimento - Reporters for Agência Brasil

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rodrigo Maia (DEM-RJ), said yesterday (19) that he intends to put the anti-corruption measures package to a vote by December. “We will work towards that. The important thing is to end the year with this matter approved,” said Maia. The project, the result of pressure and work by civil society organizations, incorporates the so-called 10 Measures against Corruption.

Maia met yesterday afternoon (19) with representatives of judges, prosecutors, the Federal Court of Auditors (TCU), non-governmental organizations and the rapporteur of the project in the Special Committee, deputy Onix Lorenzoni (DEM-RS), to discuss the topic.

Chosen this week to report on the matter, Lorenzoni said he will deliver a timeline for the project's progress through the Special Committee on August 2nd. According to him, the intention is for the text to be voted on in plenary by December 9th, National Anti-Corruption Day.

“We want to have the matter voted on in the Chamber by then. The instruction was given by President Maia, who said he wants to arrive on that day with important projects derived from this work in the Chamber approved,” said Lorenzoni. On the 13th, the then interim president of the House, Waldir Maranhão (PP-MA), installed the commission that will analyze the project.

According to Onix Lorenzoni, the commission will need approximately 60 days to decide on the best way to proceed with the proposals. He stated that the intention is to anchor the measures in projects that address the transparency of public acts, efficient control mechanisms, and punishment for those who commit these acts: “Brazilian society has a demand: in addition to the economic issues affecting Brazil, we have the issue of combating corruption, which is the desire of the entire country to see this process confronted and reduced in our country, providing the necessary instruments for investigation and execution.”

Asked if the process could also result in changes to legislation that would weaken mechanisms such as plea bargaining and leniency agreements, instruments used in the Lava Jato operation investigations, Lorenzoni denied that the project would "go backward." According to him, Brazil has made great progress with these instruments; we can improve them, but never go backward.

Drafted by the Public Prosecutor's Office, the measures were signed by more than two million people and presented to the National Congress by representatives of civil society on March 29 of this year.

The bill includes measures such as up to eight years in prison for public officials whose assets are incompatible with their income; increased penalties for corruption and its classification as a heinous crime in cases involving large sums of money; reform of the statute of limitations for criminal offenses; accountability for political parties; and criminalization of undeclared campaign contributions.

According to the president of the Association of Federal Judges (Ajufe), Roberto Carvalho Veloso, it is important that the deputies also analyze other points: "To combat impunity, it is necessary to eliminate privileged jurisdiction and allow the serving of the sentence after conviction in the second instance. Today, we have a decision from the Supreme Federal Court that allows this conviction, and we hope that the National Congress itself will decide on legislation allowing this serving of the sentence with the judgment in the second instance of jurisdiction."

Abuse of authority

After the meeting, members of the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office and the Federal Judiciary criticized the attempt by the president of the Senate, Renan Calheiros (PMDB-AL), to put to a vote last week the bill that increases the penalty for the crime of abuse of authority (PLS 280/2016).

The president of the National Association of Federal Prosecutors, José Robalinho Cavalcanti, said that Calheiros' "haste" was strange: "It is an extremely delicate matter, a criminal matter that involves state bodies, and what was strange, first of all, was the attempt to vote on this in one week. It didn't make sense."
According to the prosecutor, the project has qualities, but it also has many flaws. Among them is the provision for punishments for prosecutors responsible for cases deemed baseless: "It punishes the person responsible for opening a case that is considered baseless, and there is nothing more natural than a member of the Public Prosecutor's Office, for example, in a criminal case, believing that someone should be prosecuted and, after hearing the defense arguments, the judge concluding that there is no basis for prosecution."

Another provision foresees punishment for magistrates whose decisions are overturned by the court. According to Robalinho, “a judge and a prosecutor cannot be punished for having a different understanding. That is not abuse of authority.” “We advocate that the bill on abuse of authority should resume its normal course and that the institutions of justice, public security, and civil society be heard,” said the prosecutor.

The president of Ajufe, Roberto Carvalho Veloso, said that in addition to punishing magistrates, the bill also has a provision that would hinder plea bargains, striking at the "heart" of the mechanism: "The provision states that no one can be imprisoned to give testimony. Therefore, no one who is imprisoned will be able to make a plea bargain, because the plea bargain will be null and void. That is why we are against it, because it will fatally wound not only Operation Lava Jato, but all ongoing operations in the country."

Veloso also commented on the blocking of the WhatsApp instant messaging application by the Rio de Janeiro courts this afternoon, which was revoked by the president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Ricardo Lewandowski.
According to the president of Ajufe, there needs to be a balance in judicial decisions and in the access to data by those responsible for the applications: "There needs to be a balance, that the application provider supplies the information to the Justice system, but also that judicial decisions adapt to this, so as not to harm the majority of users."