The (Federal Supreme Court) formed a majority on Monday (22) to establish that the Court only has the responsibility to authorize searches and seizures on the premises of and in functional parliamentary properties.
The new understanding prohibits lower court judges authorize operations within and.
The action was presented by and is judged in the Virtual Plenary of the Supreme since last Friday (19). The trial is expected to end on September 26.
The lawsuit was opened after the Federal Police conducted to investigate alleged scheme for senators.
The suspicion was that it would have placed it in the functional apartments of senators and carried out counterintelligence operations to shield them from the advancement of.
The operation was authorized by the Federal Court of Brasilia and ended up filed years later by the Supreme, without suspicions being confirmed.
The rapporteur is the minister. He says in his vote that the action does not discuss the expansion of the special forum to all members of the National Congress, but concerns the “conduct of due diligence in the premises of the legislative houses or functional properties, which characterize, respectively, work place or housing of special forum authorities”.
“The relevance of the discussion stems from the central purpose of the prerogative of function: the preservation of independence and autonomy in the exercise of parliamentary mandates. By ensuring that certain investigative measures are supervised by the competent court, it is sought, as stated, to protect not the person itself, but the public function it performs,” continues Zanin.
According to the minister, the conduct of searches in the congress involves “high and concrete risk” that the measures affect the fundamental rights of parliamentarians, with the seizure of documents and data linked to the activity of deputies and senators.
“Thus, as I understand, even if the investigation does not directly target the parliamentarian, the seizure of documents or electronic devices within the National Congress or in functional parliamentary property, even indirectly, about the performance of parliamentary activity,” he says.
Zanin was accompanied by ministers Alexandre de Moraes, Gilmar Mendes, Flávio Dino, Dias Toffoli and Cármen Lúcia. For now, no minister voted against the rapporteur’s understanding.
The process opened by the Senate table had been standing in the Supreme since August 2023, when the rapporteur of the case went from retired minister Ricardo Lewandowski to Cristiano Zanin.
The minister released the case for trial on September 10, when the congress was consolidated the discussion about the PEC of the armor, with the support of the parties of the centron and the Bolsonarist deputies.
The proposal approved by the House provides that investigations against parliamentarians can only be opened on deputies and senators, in a secret vote.
As Sheet Showed, the Supreme has about and former parliamentarians suspected of crimes related to sending resources. Inquiries, all under confidential, are in at least six offices in the STF.
The fear of the advancement of investigations was one of the reasons cited by the backstage of the House of Centrão to approve the Armage PEC.
