This Thursday (7), deputy Marcel van Hattem (Novo-RS) was in a meeting with the Attorney General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet, discussing the immunity of deputies and senators in the parliament’s rostrum. According to van Hattem, although he is a victim in the process after being the target of an investigation by the Federal Police (PF), “the defense is democracy”.
“I actually have the opportunity that God gave me, and my voters in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, to defend the last trench of the parliamentary mandate, which is the use of the tribune, without having any fear of retaliation,” he said. van Hattem after the meeting.
Despite the subpoena, van Hattem refused to appear before the Federal Police. “I will not appear before a Federal Police delegate to give any explanations because the Constitution guarantees me, through article 53, civil and criminal inviolability for any of my opinions, votes and words”, said the deputy on Monday (4).
Deputy van Hatten received support from parliamentarians in defense of parliamentary immunity
The meeting with Gonet was attended by the leader of the opposition in the Senate, senator Rogério Marinho (PL-RN), and by the 2nd vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies, deputy Sóstenes Cavalcante (PL-RJ). In addition to them, van Hattem claims to have received support from several authorities after opening the investigation, including the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira, who expressed solidarity by making the House Attorney’s Office available.
After the meeting, parliamentarians spoke about the case. “I am here representing President Arthur Lira, with great concern, as a member of the Board, he appointed me to accompany him because this is a very serious case. We know Dr. Paulo Gonet’s common sense in this case and we hope that the Constitution really has its validity with immunity on the stand”, stated deputy Sóstenes Cavalcante.
Senator Rogério Marinho emphasized that the inviolability belongs to the institution and not the person. “When the inviolability of the mandate, the entirety of the parliamentarian’s speech is given, it is precisely to allow him to exercise the prerogative granted to him by popular vote. If the parliamentarian in the House’s rostrum is challenged when he denounces an authority for a wrong done or for a possible illicit act, we are putting at risk the essence of democracy, which presupposes contradiction and the possibility of criticism and supervision”, said the leader of the opposition.
Understand the case that generated the investigation against van Hattem
On October 4, deputy Marcel van Hattem was summoned by the Federal Police to give a statement, as part of a confidential process at the Federal Supreme Court (STF). According to him, the investigation was launched after a speech made on August 14 against police chief Fábio Shor, in which he called him an “abuser of authority”. In his speech, van Hattem displayed a photo of the delegate and said that he was creating “fraudulent reports” to keep Filipe Martins illegally detained.
Schor is the delegate responsible for investigations into the events of January 8th.
After the repercussions of the investigation involving van Hattem, the president of the National Association of Federal Police Delegates (ADPF), Luciano Leiro said that the deputy’s attacks are “unacceptable” and the initiation of proceedings against him is a “right decision” by the minister Flávio Dino.
“The repeated attacks made by parliamentarians, such as those of Congressman Marcel Van Hattem, on a federal delegate in the exercise of his duties, are unacceptable. Parliamentary immunity cannot serve as a shield for the commission of a crime and attacks on a legitimate Federal Police Delegate in his role as a judicial police”, said the PF delegate, in a video released to People’s Gazette.
