Thus, as he doesn’t want anything, Minister Gilmar Mendes took to trial by the virtual plenary of the Supreme Court, on Good Friday, a very complex issue regarding privileged forum. Because now? Why in the middle of a long weekend? Why in the virtual plenary? There are those who have been left with a flea behind their ears: is it to ensure that the investigations into former president Jair Bolsonaro are maintained in the STF, avoiding appeals from his lawyers in the opposite direction? It’s a doubt.
In 2018, the Supreme Court decided that the privileged forum would be maintained for crimes committed during the exercise of public office and related to that function, but only as a deputy, senator, minister or president of the Republic, in the case of those who have jurisdiction in the Supreme Court, they would maintain the position. Afterwards, the process would fall to the first instance.
In practice, a deputy suspected or accused of a crime committed while serving in the Chamber in 2020, hypothetically, can only be investigated by the Supreme Court if he was re-elected in 2022. If he was defeated or elected to a position or function other than the original , he loses his jurisdiction and falls to other instances.
Photograph: Isaac Fontana/EFE
What Gilmar Mendes brought to the virtual plenary was a very significant change: even leaving the position where he allegedly committed the crime, the authority carries with it the privileged forum. In other words: instead of privileging the current role of the person being investigated, as it is, the intention is to start focusing on the position or role where this crime was committed.
Let’s go to the Bolsonaro case. After losing re-election in 2022, going down the ramp and leaving the Presidency (in fact, without handing over to his successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva), he automatically lost his privileged position in the Supreme Court. Depending on the outcome of Gilmar Mendes’ request, he regains the forum and his lawyers will have no way, or will have much more difficulty, in trying to get their cases out of the Court – and, mainly, out of the clutches of the rapporteur, Minister Alexandre de Moraes, an enemy number one of the Bolsonaro family.
Another hypothesis for this attempt by the STF minister to “recalibrate the contours” of the forum is to resolve a doubt regarding federal deputy Chiquinho Brazão, arrested last Sunday on suspicion of ordering the murder of Marielle Franco and Anderson Gomes. When the crime was committed, Chiquinho was a councilor and had no jurisdiction in the Supreme Court. And now? One line of change in the trial could be to return the forum to those who have a mandate, but did not commit the crime of the position.
Technically, the reason for Gilmar Mendes’ request is an appeal by senator Zequinha Marinho (Podemos), who was a deputy when accused of diverting salaries from his office to his then party, the PSC. And the sending of the issue to the virtual plenary was formalized on March 14th, before the entire outcome of the Marielle case exploded, but, between us, it is reasonable to assume that Chiquinho Brazão’s name was already circulating in the privacy of the Supreme Court.
All together and mixed, it is important to follow this change in the privileged forum, which is once again being discussed and voted on in the Supreme Court, until Monday, April 8th. With an important reminder: after the reduction of privileged jurisdiction six years ago, actions against parliamentarians in the Supreme Court fell by 80%.
Tags: interested recalibrating contours privileged forum Jair Bolsonaro STF
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