The minister of the (Federal Supreme Court) annulled the conviction of , former governor of and former mayor of Campos dos Goytacazes, within the scope of . The decision was taken in a habeas corpus and signed on Friday (27).
Garotinho was sentenced by the Electoral Court to 13 years in prison on charges of buying votes in the 2016 municipal elections in exchange for the social benefit of the Citizen Check program.
According to Zanin, the sentence imposed on the former governor was based on evidence considered illegal by the Supreme Court, obtained from the extraction of data from computers at the Municipal Department of Human and Social Development of Campos dos Goytacazes (RJ).
In 2022, one of those accused in the operation had his conviction annulled by the Second Panel of the court based on the argument that the collection of evidence by investigators was irregular. Garotinho’s defense claimed that the evidence used against him had the same illicit origin.
Then under the report of Minister Ricardo Lewandowski, the collegiate on a computer seized at city hall.
Appointed new rapporteur of the case with Lewandowski’s retirement, Zanin had already granted one by authorizing him to run in the 2024 municipal elections — one of the consequences of the conviction was the ineligibility of the politician from Rio de Janeiro.
At the time, the minister understood that it was necessary to suspend the effects of the conviction only in relation to ineligibility because, if it were concluded that the conviction resulted from illegal evidence, Garotinho would be unduly prevented from contesting the elections.
