Moraes overturns Toffoli’s decision and maintains Witzel’s impeachment rite in Alerj | Politics

Moraes reversed a decision by the president of the Supreme Court, Dias Toffoli, which had determined that the Rio Legislative Assembly should form a new special commission to try the case.

In the decision, Moraes affirms that there was no irregularity in the formation of the first commission, which will be in charge of analyzing whether Witzel committed a crime of responsibility.

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“It does not seem to me that the Law of the President of the Legislative Assembly has disrespected the constitutional text or even federal legislation, since it reflected the consensus of the Parliamentary Chamber in determining that each of the political parties, through their respective direction, appoint a representative, guarantee a broad participation of the ‘majority’ and the ‘minority’ in the Special Commission ”, says the STF minister.

“It is enough to verify that there was no irradiation of any of the political parties represented in the Legislative Assembly,” he continues.

Witzel and other members of the current Rio state administration began to be investigated after alleged irregularities in the contracting of field hospitals, respirators and medicines. The investigation indicated the alleged receipt of R $ 554.2 thousand in bribes by the governor, through the law firm of his wife, Helena Witzel.

The governor of Rio was dismissed by the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), this Friday, for these suspicions (see details below). The request for impeachment being analyzed in the state parliament is motivated by the same investigations.

Moraes indicates regular procedure

In the decision, Moraes affirms that the rite adopted by Alerj so far does not violate Brazilian legislation on impeachment.

The Constitution establishes the possibility of creating a special commission to analyze the impediment of a politician “in the form and with the powers provided for in the act that gives rise to its creation”, as happened in the Rio assembly, in the analysis of Moraes.

The minister also says that the ongoing rite respects the STF’s own understanding of the impeachment procedure, expressed during the trials of former presidents Dilma Rousseff and Fernando Collor de Melo.

According to Moraes, the STF never established that the special prosecution commission should be established on the basis of an election.

Finally, it is important to point out that at no time did this Supreme Court affirm the need to hold elections to elect representatives of political parties or parliamentary blocs for the Special Commission. The Court expressly declared that ‘the hypothesis is not an election’, only failing to invalidate it as long as the election to be held was limited to ‘ratifying or not the nominations made by the leaders of the parties or blocks,’ “he wrote.

The Superior Court of Justice (STJ) ruled, on Friday (28), the immediate removal of Governor Wilson Witzel (PSC) from his post on suspicion of corruption. It also ordered searches against the first lady, attorney Helena Witzel, who has contracts with companies involved in the embezzlement scheme.

In addition to the dismissal of the governor, the STJ issued 17 arrest warrants, 6 of them preventive and 11 temporary, and 72 for search and seizure.

To comply with the mandates, an operation called Tris in Idem was launched, alluding to the fact that he is the third governor of the state to use similar illicit schemes to obtain undue advantages, the other two were Sérgio Cabral and Luiz Fernando Pezão.