The National Council of Justice (CNJ) decided on Tuesday unanimously to punish with, which conducted the processes of Operation Car Wash in Rio.
The CNJ analyzed three disciplinary administrative proceedings (PADS) instituted against Bretas, which has been removed from office since 2023. He was in the 7th Federal Court of Rio. Among the deviations pointed out are abusive and partial conduct.
In his vote, the rapporteur José Rotondano considered the accusations partially proceeding and defended compulsory retirement – a maximum penalty that can be applied. He was accompanied by 13 counselors – a member declared himself prevented. The CNJ considered that there was excesses in Bretas’ performance.
“I am proposing to the court that the imputations brought against the magistrate is partially upheld and apply to him the penalty of compulsory retirement,” said Rotondano.
In presenting a unique vote to the three PADs, Rotondano said that the set of evidence against Bretas in the proceedings was sufficiently conclusive “in the sense that extremely serious conduct was perpetrated that need to be rebuked by this council.”
– What was seen in the present analysis was a set of inquisitive practices and a set of practices of a state authoritarianism that subvert the logic of criminal proceedings – he said.
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For him, Bretas acted “for vanity, self -promotion and longing for protagonism in the justice system.” There is no appeal to the CNJ, only a writ of mandamus in the Supreme Federal Court (STF).
At the beginning of the trial, the Deputy Attorney General of the Republic José Adonis Callou de Araújo Sá said that Bretas “became aware” of the performance of lawyer Nythalmar Ferreira Dias, suspected of using proximity to the magistrate to benefit:
– The judge became aware of this performance of a lawyer, who was called a “dream salesman”, and did not adopt measures.
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Adonis advocated the application of the 150-day availability (removal) penalty due to part of the accusations, but criticized the use of disciplinary proceedings by former whistleblowers and accused of the Car Wash.
“When these cases happen, everyone wants punishment, but then the narratives are being modified and confessed defendants, confessed collaborators, who pay, who restores money to the purse, end as victims, victims of alleged pressure,” he said.
Lawyer of Bretas, Ana Luiza Vogado de Oliveira asked the magistrate’s acquittal and said that the imposition of the penalty of compulsory retirement would mean “judging against the proof of the case”.
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One of the PADs came from a complaint from the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) and cites facts related to three award-winning collaboration agreements entered into by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) and approved in the Superior Courts-Superior Court of Justice (STJ) and Supreme Court. The documents, according to the prosecution, show that the magistrate would negotiate penalties, guide lawyers and combine strategies with the prosecutor.
Interference in the election
Bretas is also the subject of a complaint by Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes (PSD), who requested his removal “for conduct incompatible with the impartiality that needs to guide the performance of the magistrates”.
Paes lawyers alleged the influence of the judge, including to harm him in the election election for the state government in 2018-he would have acted to favor the then candidate and former federal judge Wilson Witzel, who was elected.
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The third complaint was filed by the former National Corregedor of Justice, Minister Luís Felipe Salomão, from an extraordinary correction at the 7th Federal Court, in which data from the magistrate’s computers and the servers who work with him and reports about his performance were collected.
