Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF (Federal Supreme Court), decreed this Thursday (11) the loss of the mandate of federal deputy Carla Zambelli (PL-SP). In the same decision, it determined that the President of the House, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), will be sworn in as a parliamentary deputy within 48 hours.
On Wednesday evening (10), the House saved Zambelli’s mandate by 227 votes to 170 — a majority of 257 votes was needed to impeach her. She is imprisoned in Italy, where she fled after being convicted by the STF.
The decision of the plenary contradicts the vote of the CCJ (Constitution, Justice and Citizenship Commission), which had a majority due to the loss of its mandate with the help of the center deputies.
“This is a VOID ACT, due to obvious unconstitutionality, presenting both a lack of respect for the principles of legality, morality and impersonality, as well as a blatant deviation from the objective,” Moraes said.
STF ministers are following with apprehension a new chapter in difficult relations between the legislative and judicial powers. The observation is that the week ends in confusion, after efforts to reconcile the decline of Gilmar Mendes on the legitimacy of presenting requests for impeachment against ministers of the Court.
In the specific case of Zambelli, a judge recalls that it would not be necessary to submit the agenda to the plenary, since consultation with the Board of Directors of the Chamber would be sufficient.
The decision was made ex officio. In other words, without the Supreme Court having received any request for comment on the subject. The last advance in the process took place last Sunday (7), at the request of Bolsonaro’s defense.
Moraes also asks Minister Flávio Dino, president of the first panel, to hold a virtual plenary session from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. to analyze the subject.
In the ruling, he cites reports of the House’s deliberations, including an image from the House’s website.
According to him, in the Mensalão trial, the court decided on the possibility of an automatic loss of the parliamentary mandate, following the final and without appeal of criminal convictions. It was understood that it was not possible to maintain a mandate after the loss of political rights.
Zambelli was sentenced in May to the loss of his mandate and ten years in prison for having entered the system of the CNJ (National Council of Justice) with the help of hacker Walter Delgatti Neto, also convicted.
According to the indictment, Delgatti issued a false arrest warrant for Alexandre de Moraes and said he did so at the deputy’s request. Zambelli says he did not help draft the fake document and only learned of the hacker’s invasion of the CNJ after the fact, when he received the fraudulent files from him.
Another precedent cited by Moraes is that of Paulo Maluf (PP-SP). In August 2018, the board of directors of the Chamber of Deputies unanimously indicted the deputy. The loss of the mandate had already been noted by the Minister of the STF, Edson Fachin, in December 2017, when he also decided to arrest the parliamentarian.
In another criminal case, the court pointed out that another hypothesis of automatic loss of mandate is where the conviction imposes the execution of a sentence in a closed regime in a way that results in the absence of the deputy in a third of the ordinary sessions of the Legislative Chamber.
This case concerned the conviction of federal deputy Paulo Feijó (PR-RJ) for passive corruption and money laundering as part of a spin-off of Operation Sanguessuga.
The plenary chamber deliberated on the loss of the mandate, after Motta understood that, according to the Constitution, Congress has the last word in the case of a parliamentarian convicted of a crime.
Motta had initially said that the Chamber Council would immediately ratify the STF order, but he withdrew under pressure from the PL and referred the matter to the CCJ in June.
The corporatism of MPs and the assessment that impeachment is a drastic measure worked in Zambelli’s favor, as in the case of Glauber. Furthermore, the vote adds to messages of dissatisfaction from parliamentarians with regard to the STF.
Zambelli’s opponents, on the other hand, recalled, during the vote, the episode in which she withdrew and pointed a gun at a man on the eve of the second round of the 2022 elections, which also earned her a conviction.
About The Author
