Justice orders the release of Pedro Fernandes and Cristiane Brasil | Rio de Janeiro

The two were arrested on September 11 in Operation Catarata, which investigates alleged deviations in social assistance contracts in the state government and in the Rio City Council.

The decision states safety measuresit is like:

• monthly court appearance;
• prohibition of contact with companies and others involved in the investigation;
• I remember home at night.

The judges also ordered businessman Flavio Chadud, owner of the Servlog company, accused of paying bribes to Pedro Fernandes and Cristiane Brasil in exchange for contracts with the state government and the Rio City Council at the time they were secretaries.

Two other people who were under house arrest were also released, with the same precautionary measures: the businessman João Marcos Borges Mattos (who until May was undersecretary of education of the state), and the retired delegate Mario Chadud, father of Servlog owner Flavio Chadud.

Pedro was arrested, according to the MPRJ, for actions during his tenure at the Secretary of State for Technology and Social Development under the governments of Sérgio Cabral and Luiz Fernando Pezão, before occupying Education in RJ at the invitation of Wilson Witzel.

• Detained on this 6th, Pedro Fernandes is from the 3rd generation of family politicians and worked with Cesar Maia, Cabral, Pezão, Crivella and Witzel.

The León XIII State Foundation, the object of the investigation, was linked to Pedro’s secretariat. The investigation indicates that the secretary kept 20% of the value of the signed contracts, all money from bribes, according to the MP.

Upon receiving an arrest warrant, Pedro Fernandes presented a positive test for Covid-19, which led to preventive detention at his home. Later he was taken to a prison.

Cristiane is responsible for acts allegedly carried out between May 2013 and May 2017, when she assumed the municipal secretariats under the direction of Eduardo Paes and Marcelo Crivella.

According to the investigations, Cristiane Brasil received bribes in three ways: in cash, through deposits in other people’s accounts, which returned the values ​​to the former deputy and also through the payment of personal bills.

Cristiane was Secretary of Healthy Aging of the City of Rio de Janeiro and was even appointed Minister of Labor in the Temer government, but her mandate was suspended by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) due to convictions in the Labor Court, revealed by the G1.

On the day of the arrest, Pedro Fernandes’ defense said that the secretary “was outraged by the arrest warrant.”

“His lawyer had been requesting access to the file since the end of July, but was unable to. The defense put Pedro at the disposal of the authorities to clarify the occasion. However, Pedro was never heard and only learned from the press that he was being investigated by Something that is still not sure what it is, “said the lawyers, in a note.” Pedro trusts that everything will be clarified as soon as possible and his innocence is proven, “they added.

Also in a note, Cristiane Brasil affirmed that the complaint is “a clear attempt at political persecution.”

“They had eight years to investigate this unfounded complaint that they made in 2012 against me and they did not do it because they did not want to,” he said. “But it seems that now I am a candidate for mayor in a clear attempt to politically persecute me and my father.”