The president of the National Congress, Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP), defended the presumption of innocence when commenting on the Federal Police operation launched earlier against the government leader in the Senate, Jaques Wagner (PT-BA), in the Banco Master case. The statements took place this Thursday (18) after Alcolumbre canceled the joint session of Congress that would be held this morning to analyze presidential vetoes. At the time, he alleged a lack of agreement and quorum.
When talking to journalists, Alcolumbre recalled the speech he made in the Senate plenary on Tuesday (16) in which he denied having received money from banker Daniel Vorcaro and rejected a report from the magazine Look which reported the senator’s receipt of US$30 million. Then, the president of the Senate expressed “full solidarity” with Wagner and praised his political trajectory.
“We need to understand that no one in this country can be convicted before a case has become final. And everyone in this country can be investigated, everyone can have some questioning from the Judiciary, and this is normal in the democratic rule of law. But everyone must also have the presumption of innocence”, declared Alcolumbre.
The senator continued: “I do not celebrate anything against anyone’s story before the final judgment of a case in this country. In this country, many authorities have already been victims of this public execration. And over time, most of them proved, during the investigations, their innocence.”
Alcolumbre also said that there are cases in which targets of operations do not even know about the content of the case and that lawyers complain about a lack of access to the files. “We only have one problem: everyone is guilty, until proven guilty. And that is very sad. Everyone is guilty and convicted before being tried,” he said. The senator added: “I respect the role of all institutions, the Federal Police, the Federal Public Ministry, the Brazilian Justice, but we need to understand that this mantra that everyone is guilty until proven innocent is wrong in Brazil.”
Wagner is the target of the ninth phase of Operation Compliance Zero, which works on the Banco Master case and investigates frauds that allegedly involve PT in Bahia and banker Daniel Vorcaro. Estadão asked Wagner for a statement and received no response.
