President of the PSD, awaits the referral to the Supreme Federal Court (STF) of the inquiry in which he was investigated and acquitted of the accusation of bribes of JBS
The defense of, secretary of Government of São Paulo and president of the PSD, awaits the referral to the investigation in which he was investigated and acquitted of the accusation of bribes of JBS. It is necessary to wait for the process to be assessed to request its filing also in the Supreme Court. While the case file is not received in court, it is not possible to petition in the process. The case was closed in the Electoral Court, but Minister Alexandre de Moraes pulled the investigation back to his office. The lawyer Thiago Fernandes Boverio, who represents Kassab in the case, has not yet dispatched with Moraes. Judgment on receiving the complaint against former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and the other seven accused of the “crucial core” of the coup plan overloaded the minister this week.
Sought by Estadão, the lawyer said he will request the filing of the case. According to Boverio, the order of Alexandre de Moraes is a “formal procedure”. “With the res judicata, considering the jurisprudential amendment, will now be filed in the Supreme Court and no longer in the Electoral Court.” Kassab has starred in a movement that bothers Moraes, the amnesty project for the scammers of January 8, 2023, which, if approved in Congress, could benefit Bolsonaro. The minister based the decision in the trial, which, on the 11th, expanded the reach of the privileged forum. In a turn of jurisprudence, the Supreme Court has defined that the court maintains jurisdiction to investigate and judge authorities even after they leave the positions that entitle the forum by prerogative of function. Before that, the forum was restricted to politicians in the exercise of the mandate.
According to the thesis approved by the ministers, the prerogative of forum for the trial of crimes committed in the position and due to the functions “even after the removal of office, even if the investigation or criminal action are initiated after its exercise”. The application of the new interpretation is immediate to ongoing processes, but the action against Gilberto Kassab was already locked. A week after the trial, on March 19, Alexandre de Moraes determined that the São Paulo Regional Electoral Court returned the inquiry to the Supreme Court. The investigation had been transferred to the first instance of the Electoral Justice in 2019 by order of the minister himself. At the time, he recognized the “supervening loss of competence” of the Supreme Court because Gilberto Kassab had left the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations and Communications in the government of former President Michel Temer (MDB).
The turnaround took Kassab by surprise. Since he was sent to the Electoral Court six years ago, the investigation has followed its course and the outcome has been favorable to the former minister. The inquiry was converted into an electoral criminal action for passive corruption, electoral ideological falsehood and criminal association and was later filed. The case was res judicata – when there is no possibility of appeal – on November 29, 2023. The TRE of São Paulo ordered the process to consider that there was no evidence, even if “minimal”, of undue payments to Kassab.
The judges concluded that the Public Prosecution Service was unable to point out which counterparts were negotiated by him with J&F or his executives. “In the absence of such factual elements, it is not possible to identify the causal link between functional act and the adventured receipt of the alleged improper advantage,” says an excerpt from the judgment. “That is, in addition to being inept, the complaint lacks just cause in relation to the elements of materiality related to the request for improper advantage.” Electoral Public Prosecution Service appealed to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), but the lock was maintained.
*With information from Estadão Content
