The Federal Supreme Court (STF) decided, this Thursday (25), that all ministers of the Court will vote to define the sentence of former senator and former president of the Republic Fernando Collor, convicted of passive corruption and money laundering in Operation Lava Jato. The vote will be next Wednesday (31). In today’s session, the sixth destined for the trial, after deciding to condemn the former senator, the plenary decided that the ministers who voted to acquit Collor of the charges will also be able to express their views on the dosimetry of the penalty, the calculation that defines the final sentence which must be fulfilled. During the trial, the rapporteur, Minister Edson Fachin, understood that the colleagues who manifested themselves for the acquittal of Collor cannot vote on dosimetry. However, the understanding was defeated by 7 votes to 2. Minister Dias Toffoli defended that the members of the court cannot be prevented from voting. Toffoli stated that, in the monthly allowance trial, he even voted to convict former PT president José Genoino in order to participate in the penalty vote. “I voted in some cases of Penal Action 470 to convict and participate in the dosimetry, to be able to influence, since they took away my right to acquit. We are a collegiate, and no one can take away anyone’s vote. We are equal,” he said. Toffoli also spoke of “correcting injustices” that were made by the STF. “We are correcting injustices that were done and we don’t have to be ashamed of apologizing for judicial mistakes we made. We are here to correct injustices, and people have suffered for injustices that we committed in the past”, he added. In addition to the rapporteur, Justices Alexandre de Moraes, André Mendonça, Luís Roberto Barroso, Luiz Fux, Cármen Lúcia, Dias Toffoli and Rosa Weber also voted to condemn Collor. Nunes Marques and Gilmar Mendes voted for acquittal. Condemnation At the beginning of the session, the Supreme Court, by 8 votes to 2, decided to condemn Fernando Collor. For the court, as a former leader of the Brazilian Labor Party (PTB), Collor was responsible for political appointments for BR Distribuidora, a subsidiary of Petrobras, and received R$ 20 million in undue advantages in company contracts. The crimes would have occurred between 2010 and 2014. Defense During the trial, lawyer Marcelo Bessa asked for Collor’s acquittal. The defense claimed that the PGR’s accusations are based on testimonials of the award-winning and no evidence was presented that would incriminate the former senator. Bessa also denied that Collor was responsible for appointing the company’s directors. According to the lawyer, the whistleblowers accused Collor based on comments from third parties. “There is no reliable evidence to corroborate this version of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. Here is a version posted, solely and exclusively, by award-winning collaborators, who do not say that the collection of these amounts would be related to Collor or with the alleged intermediation of this flagship contract” , finished. Enlarged text at 7:22 pm
Agência Brasil
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