Brazil’s Congress Defies Supreme Court To Keep Carla Zambelli In Office
Key Points
- Lawmakers refused to expel Carla Zambelli even after Brazil’s top court ordered her to lose her seat.
- The clash exposes a deep struggle over who ultimately controls elected mandates: Congress or the Supreme Court.
- The outcome will shape how Brazil punishes abuses of power without turning justice into a political weapon.
In a dramatic overnight session, Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies decided not to strip high-profile lawmaker Carla Zambelli of her mandate, despite two Supreme Court convictions and a clear court order that she should lose her seat.
The vote reached 227 in favour of cassation, 170 against and 10 abstentions, short of the 257 votes required to expel a deputy. On paper, Zambelli remains a federal congresswoman even as she sits in an Italian prison.
Hours earlier, the powerful Constitution and Justice Committee had recommended her removal. Zambelli appeared by video from custody in Italy, where she has been held since July after leaving Brazil and being detained on the basis of a Brazilian warrant.
Addressing colleagues, she insisted she is innocent, framed the case as political persecution and urged deputies to defend the separation of powers rather than simply execute the will of judges.
Her legal troubles, however, are severe. In one case, the Supreme Court found that she ordered hacker Walter Delgatti to break into Brazil’s National Justice Council computer system and insert fake decisions, including a fabricated arrest warrant targeting a Supreme Court justice.
In another, she was convicted for illegally carrying a gun and chasing a man through the streets of São Paulo on the eve of the 2022 presidential runoff – an episode that went viral and turned her into a polarising symbol.
Behind the scenes, party strategy was crucial. Zambelli’s Liberal Party urged lawmakers to avoid a formal cassation and instead let her lose the mandate later through absenteeism.
That path could allow her to preserve political rights in the long term, while a cassation verdict would likely bar her from elections for many years after serving her sentence.
Left-leaning parties, led by the Workers’ Party, denounced the manoeuvre as Congress shielding one of its own and weakening the force of judicial rulings.
The case is a window into Brazil’s current tensions: courts aggressively policing attacks on institutions, a Congress wary of judicial overreach, and a country still deeply split over how far punishment should go when politics and justice collide.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief