The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) is expected to appeal the decision of Minister André Mendonça, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), in the coming days.
The two investigations blocked by Mendonça were being processed at the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) and investigated an alleged corruption scheme involving deviations in social assistance contracts in Rio.
The lawsuits were considered the governor’s biggest legal imbroglios. They could remove him from office and, as a last resort, send him to prison.
Whistleblowers accused the governor of receiving bribes from suppliers of the Leão XIII Foundation. The governor denies the accusations and called the STF pointing out irregularities in the investigations.
The attorney general’s team, Paulo Gonet, disagrees with the arguments presented by the governor’s defense and which were accepted by minister André Mendonça last week.
The minister analyzed Castro’s defense request and concluded that there had been irregularities in the conduct of the investigations. Mendonça stated, for example, that the allegations implicating the governor could not have been closed by the Public Ministry and the Rio Court of Justice.
According to the minister, the allegations should have been signed by the PGR and the STJ, since the governor has a special jurisdiction in the court. Because of this, he concluded that the evidence obtained in the investigation against Castro is null.
“When it comes to criminal prosecution and, especially, plea bargaining, the practice of persecutory conduct cannot be validated in clear disregard for the parameters established by the rules defining jurisdictional jurisdiction,” said Mendonça.
The governor’s defense reported having received the decision “with relief”. “In addition to recognizing the various illegalities and abuses in the spurious investigations carried out, it ordered the closure of the Inquiries being processed before the Superior Court of Justice”, said the lawyers.
