In a hearing held this Wednesday (1), in Rome, the Italian Attorney General’s Office asked the Supreme Court of Cassation to reject a second request for extradition of the former deputy (PL-SP) to Brazil, as it understands that the trial that led to the second conviction by the STF (Supreme Federal Court) was also affected by a lack of impartiality.
The judges’ decision must be communicated by early evening, Italian time (afternoon in Brazil).
This morning, the court judged the second extradition request made by Brazil to Italy, referring to 2022, in São Paulo. Zambelli was sentenced by the STF in August last year to five years and three months in prison under an initial semi-open regime for illegal possession of a firearm and illegal harassment using a firearm against journalist Luan Araújo.
Just over a month ago, the same court in the case of the invasion of the CNJ (National Council of Justice) system and the issuing of a false arrest warrant against Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF. She was sentenced to ten years in prison.
In this first case, the judges accepted the defense’s arguments, annulled the sentence for extradition from the Rome Court of Appeal, a lower court, and stated that the case was not judged impartially by the STF.
The court saw Moraes’ dual role as problematic, as a person injured by one of the crimes and as a member of the judging panel, in addition to reporting the case. In the judge’s assessment, the modality in which the process took place in Brazil meant a “macroscopic violation of the right to defense”.
At the hearing on May 22, the Prosecutor’s Office had spoken out in favor of extradition.
This Wednesday, however, in his intervention, prosecutor Fabio Picuti, who did not participate in the previous trial, stated, according to the Sheet found that Alexandre de Moraes’ impartiality may have conditioned this second trial. He aligned himself with the arguments presented by Zambelli’s defense and asked for the lower court’s sentence to be annulled.
The Prosecutor’s Office’s understanding, when accepting the defense’s thesis, is that, due to his leading role in the first case, Moraes should not have participated in the trial of the second case.
“If in the first process, Minister de Moraes, as the injured party to one of the crimes, could not have acted as judge, this situation remains and conditions the second process. His impartiality is compromised”, said lawyer Angelo Sammarco, one of the defenders, after the hearing.
Unlike the first case, in which Moraes was the victim of one of the crimes and rapporteur of the process, in addition to having participated in the decision, the second case was reported by minister Gilmar Mendes and the victim was another –. Moraes was part of the panel of 11 ministers and voted for the conviction, which had a final score of 9 to 2 in the STF. Ministers Kassio Nunes Marques and André Mendonça voted for acquittal.
The panel of the sixth criminal section was made up of five judges, and the hearing lasted an hour and a half, behind closed doors. Zambelli, who is free, did not participate in the hearing.
She left the prison where she was in Rome on May 22, after the Cassation denied the first extradition request. Her Italian lawyers, Angelo and Pieremilio Sammarco, stated that they do not know where the former congresswoman is.
