The TRE-GO (Regional Electoral Court of Goiás) unanimously decided, on Tuesday (8), to reverse a decision of the first instance of Goiás, (), for eight years.
Also reversed the punishments of ineligibility and cancellation of the mandate of the elected mayor of Goiânia, Sandro Mabel (União Brasil).
Despite having removed these harsher sanctions, the court understood that it was configured forbidden conduct and maintained the punishment of payment of fines. It is appealed to the decision to the (Superior Electoral Court).
After the trial, Caiado spoke on a social network, saying that he was waiting with great serenity and respect for the trial of the TRE about his conduct in the 2024 election. “I receive the decision with the feeling of tranquility and confidence in our judiciary. My trajectory is of absolute respect to the laws of our country and I will always follow this path,” he said.
Last to pronounce on Tuesday’s trial, the president of TRE-GO, Luiz Cláudio Veiga Braga, said he accompanied the other court magistrates, “pushing the punishment that had been employed without any reasonableness, at the most unreasonable extremes, to play or bring the solution to its proper trail.”
Braga added, however, that the Court recognized that there was “improper conclamation for political exploitation of the palace environment”, maintaining the application of a fine.
Caiado, had promoted, in 2024, at the Emerald Palace, headquarters of the Goiás Executive, two dinners with the objective of raising support to Mabel in the ongoing election campaign at the time.
The meetings with elected, non-elected councilors and other political leaders in the city occurred shortly after the first round result, named by the former president (PL).
In December last year, Electoral Judge Maria Umbelina Zorzetti condemned Caiado and Mabel for abuse of political power, under the AIJE (Electoral Judicial Investigation Action) presented by Fred Rodrigues.
With this, he had declared the cancellation of Mabel’s mandate and the ineligibility of both for eight years, and condemns Caiado to pay a fine of $ 60,000 and Mabel, $ 40,000.
The decision, however, had no immediate effects, given the possibility of presenting resources to TRE-GO and the TSE, which allowed Mabel to take office, despite the initial sentence.
After the decision of the first instance, the governor had made a statement denying that he had made electoral meetings in the palace. According to him, the dinners aimed to alert the elected councilors of the situation of chaos in the state capital in the health area.
“I gathered councilors at an institutional, power meeting to deal with an extremely delicate subject at that time, which is the collapse of the government machine. It was not a meeting in order to campaign, but to look for solutions to this reality that Goiânia lives today,” said Caiado.
He launched his presidential candidacy last Friday (4), with criticism of President Lula (PT), independence signs about Bolsonaro and a speech focused on public safety.
About 5,000 people were mobilized for the act, including more than one hundred mayors of cities in Goiás. Part of the supporters wore green and yellow shirts and the phrase “Caiado, courage to straighten Brazil.”
