The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), consults this Sunday (14) the legal area of the House to define what steps he will take regarding the order of the STF (Supreme Federal Court) in relation to the case of federal deputy Carla Zambelli (PL-SP). The information comes from the anchor of CNN Gustavo Uribe.
A CNN found that, due to the Zambelli case, about the prerogative of revoking the mandates of federal deputies. The intention is to clarify whether the final word in these situations rests with the Chamber or the Court.
This week, the Chamber plenary. The deputy was convicted twice by the STF and has been considered a fugitive by Brazilian justice since June; She is currently imprisoned in Italy, where she awaits the definition of an extradition process.
In light of the plenary’s decision, Minister Alexandre de Moraes decreed — and the Court’s plenary approved — that Hugo take office as a substitute, given the vacancy in the position.
In his decision, Moraes cited precedents of actions judged by the Supreme Court to reinforce that people with criminal convictions that have become final (in other words: without further possibility of appeals) must have their political rights suspended for the duration of the convictions. Thus, as he would no longer enjoy political rights, he would also not be able to hold elected office.
In 2013, the STF had sentenced then-deputy Natan Donadon to more than 13 years in prison for embezzlement and conspiracy. However, when the decision was made official, the Chamber took a similar course to that of Zambelli: the case ended up in the plenary, which did not gather enough votes to revoke it.
At the time, given the decision in the Plenary and the fact that Donadon was already serving a sentence in prison, the then president of the House, Henrique Eduardo Alves, removed the parliamentarian from his position and ordered the call of a substitute to take over the mandate.
Subsequently, the then STF minister Luís Roberto Barroso granted an injunction to suspend the effects of the Chamber’s vote.
Barroso assessed that the “general rule” that “it is up to each of the Houses of the National Congress, respectively, to decide on the loss of the mandate of a Deputy or Senator who suffers a final criminal conviction” would not suit Donadon’s situation, as his conviction under an initial closed regime should last for a “time longer than the remaining period of the parliamentary mandate”.
In the case of Zambelli, the parliamentarian was sentenced to ten years in prison in a closed regime in the case of the invasion of the CNJ (National Council of Justice) electronic system and to just over five years in a semi-open regime for illegal restraint with a firearm, in relation to an episode that occurred on the eve of the second round of the 2022 election.”
The “general rule” cited by Barroso is article 55 of the Constitution. The provision states that, in cases of final and unappealable conviction, “the loss of the mandate will be decided by the Chamber of Deputies or the Federal Senate, by an absolute majority, upon provocation by the respective Board or political party represented in the National Congress, ensuring full defense”.
Discussions about this type of impeachment would again raise debates in 2017, when the STF sentenced, in different cases, the then deputies Paulo Feijó (sentence of more than 12 years for passive corruption and money laundering) and Paulo Maluf (almost eight years for the crime of money laundering).
Edson Fachin, now president of the STF and then rapporteur of the action on Maluf, cited Barroso’s injunction in the Danodon case to say that the loss of the then deputy’s mandate should be “automatic”, through a decision by the Board of Directors of the House.
In February 2018, the House, then presided over by Rodrigo Maia, initially only suspended Maluf’s mandate. At the same time, the Chamber appealed to the STF against the order that the revocation of Feijó’s mandate not go through the plenary.
After months of resistance, Maluf ended up being removed by order of the Board of Directors in August of that year. In 2022, Barroso, also rapporteur of the action brought by the Chamber regarding the case of Feijó’s impeachment, terminated the process without resolving the merits, as the deputy’s term ended with the 2018 election and he no longer held elected positions in Brasília.
