After obtaining a favorable decision in the stf (Federal Court of Justice), Sergio Cabral awaits the bureaucratic procedures to leave the prison unit of the Military Police in Niterói (RJ). The defense of the former governor of Rio de Janeiro believes that he should be released on Monday (19.Dec.2022). From then on, he must serve a house arrest order.
🇧🇷We are waiting for the letters to be sent communicating the decision and the issuance of the release permit. This hardly ever happens today. It is more likely to occur on a Monday, when there is normal business hours.”, said lawyer Daniel Bialski to the Brazil Agency🇧🇷
On Friday (Dec. 16), the 2nd Panel of the STF formed a majority to respond to a habeas corpus in favor of Sergio Cabral. The defense of the former governor claimed the recognition of the incompetence of the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba, then headed by former judge Sergio Moro, to determine the arrest and judge the Operation Lava Jato process on the alleged payment of bribes in works by Comperj ( Rio de Janeiro Petrochemical Complex).
By 3 votes to 2, it was decided to revoke the preventive detention, annul decisions taken in the process and send the case for analysis by the Federal Justice of Rio. The trial began on 9 November. The deliberation took place electronically, with each minister registering his vote in the virtual plenary.
Sérgio Cabral has been in prison for more than 6 years, since he was the target of Operation Calicut, an offshoot of Operation Lava Jato that began on November 17, 2016. According to the investigation, bribes were charged in the signing of contracts between companies and the government of Rio de Janeiro .
Cabral was implicated in different investigated corruption cases and became a defendant in more than 30 cases – being convicted in 23. Some sentences were later revoked or modified. Prior to these revisions, sentences amounted to more than 400 years in prison.
In 2019, the STF started to consider that the execution of a condemnatory sentence is only possible after all the resources are exhausted. Until then, it was accepted to start serving the sentence after a decision in the 2nd instance, which was considered unconstitutional.
As Cabral can still appeal in all cases, he was kept in custody based on preventive detention orders, usually determined when it is recognized that the accused may commit crimes again or disrupt the progress of the process.
In all, the former governor was the subject of 5 preventive arrest warrants. 4 had already been revoked, 2 of which were converted into house arrest. Thus, only a warrant that was in force kept Sérgio Cabral in the prison unit.
The 3 ministers who made up the majority in favor of the habeas corpus considered that maintaining a preventive detention for more than 6 years is excessive. At the same time, Gilmar Mendes, who had the tie-breaking vote in favor of the former governor, stressed that the decision does not mean acquittal, as the pending trials will follow their normal course.
After the decision, Sérgio Cabral’s lawyers informed, in a note, that after leaving the prison unit, the former governor will remain under house arrest pending the conclusion of the other criminal actions. 🇧🇷The defense relies on a fair solution, aimed at recognizing its innocence and a series of nullities existing in the other processes to which it responds”declared the lawyers.
With information from Brazil Agency🇧🇷
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