Committee to investigate Brazilian Supreme and Electoral Courts awaits decision from Chamber president Lira

With the support of 181 federal deputies, the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee (CPI of Abuse of Authority) that intends to investigate abuses committed by Justices of the Supreme Court (STF) and the Ministers of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) depends on the authorization of the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira, to be installed later this year.

After filing the ‘CPI of Abuse of Authority’ request on Thursday (Nov. 23), congressman Marcel van Hattem, who initiated and collected the signatures, said he talked with President Lira.

“I talked in the afternoon with the President @ArthurLira_ to inform him of the protocol of the CPI. Aware and about to travel on an international mission, he agreed to deal with the issue upon his return to the House next Tuesday (Nov. 29),” he wrote.

Van Hattem stressed in a live broadcast on Friday (Nov. 25) that the CPI request followed all the requirements for installation, as the minimum number of signatures, deadline, and fact determined.

According to the deputy, news that the committee will not be installed are only “speculation of those who cheer against the investigation.”

“As for procedural issues, the Justice CPI can be installed immediately; it can work until the beginning of the parliamentary recess and can be extended and entered until the end of January.”

“And because of the abuses that have been committed repeatedly, and that can still be committed, it is essential that it begins immediately,” said the congressman.

According to some parliamentarians interviewed by Gazeta do Povo, the proximity of the parliamentary recess, which begins on Dec. 22, in addition to the change of government transition and the vote on the Annual Budget Law, do not favor the scenario for the installation of the Justice CPI.

There are also 14 other requests for the installation of a CPI in the Chamber of Deputies, awaiting the deliberation of President Arthur Lira.

“The installation depends on the President of the House, but it is essential and urgent that it happens to investigate the arbitrariness committed by some members of the TSE and the STF,” said Representative Chris Tonietto, one of the signatories of the request.

Congressman Diego Garcia signed the request and considered the CPI “necessary”. However, he assesses that it will hardly be installed this year.

“There is a forecast of only three more weeks of meetings and deliberative sessions in the House of Representatives until the end of this legislature. At the end of each legislature, the work and activities in the committees come to an end. Probably, a new request will have to be presented next year for the creation of the CPI”, he declared.

The advisory board of President Lira told Gazeta do Povo that he would not comment on the CPI request.

In Guilherme Amado’s column, Lira said in a conversation with interlocutors that he would not install the CPI because there is a queue of other requests – about 14 other requests for installation.

“Lira believes that the STF and the TSE are making a mistake in their response to Bolsonarism, but he is not sure that the CPI is the best tool to get the ministers to change their stance,” the columnist writes.

CPI REQUEST

The request for the so-called ‘CPI of Abuse of Authority’, filed by Deputy Marcel van Hatten, mentions the need to investigate “the violation of fundamental rights and guarantees, the practice of arbitrary conduct without due process of law, including the adoption of censorship and acts of abuse of authority by some members of the TSE and STF.

Among the cases to be analyzed are the following:

• the decision of search and seizure against business people for having shared messages on an application;
• the determination to block the bank accounts of 43 people and companies suspected of financing antidemocratic acts;
• the censorship of parliamentarians, economist Marcos Cintra, Brasil Paralelo production company, Jovem Pan radio station, and
• a tweet from Gazeta do Povo newspaper.

“It is urgent that the Chamber of Deputies, the authentic representative of the Brazilian people, exercise its constitutional powers to end any authoritarianism coming from the Judiciary.”

“They have been mortally wounding the Rule of Law and installing a true State of Exception in the country, violating constitutional rights and fundamental guarantees,” wrote Van Hattem.

The 181 federal deputies who signed the petition are from parties with very different ideological backgrounds.

The list includes members of Congress from Podemos, MDB, Citizenship, PSDB, Republicans, PSC, PP, Patriot, PSDB, and Novo.

Some parliamentarians opposed to the CPI have positioned themselves on social networks about why they did not sign.

One of them was the federal deputy Fábio Trad, rapporteur of the prison in the second instance (PEC 199/19).

“I will not sign the so-called ‘CPI of the abuse of power of the TSE and STF’ because the abuse of power comes precisely from those who use the mandate to weaken the only power that is having the courage to combat coups and the rise of the extreme right in the country. I will not sign. Long live the TSE!” wrote Trad.

Facing the critics of the CPI, Van Hattem stressed that the installation of the commission is a way to “pacify the country and bring about an institutional rebalancing.”

“We don’t want one power above the other; it’s nothing against power; it’s all in favor of the legislative, of independence and harmony among the three powers,” he said.

CONGRESSMAN TAKES LEGAL ACTION AGAINST CPI IN SUPREME COURT

After deputy Marcel van Hattem got the minimum number of signatures for the CPI of Abuse of Authority installation, deputy Nereu Crispim filed a lawsuit in the STF against the commission that intends to investigate the Supreme Court itself.

In the petition, besides asking that the CPI be filed away, Congressman Crispim asks that the request be investigated in the inquiry investigating digital militias’ activities.

According to the congressman, the creation of the CPI would be unconstitutional and illegal because it violates the Constitution’s fundamental clauses, violating the separation of powers, and he claims that Marcel van Hattem’s initiative aims to legitimize and encourage “antidemocratic acts”.

Although Van Hattem does not question the election results and does not even mention the acts carried out in front of barracks, Nereu Crispim sees the CPI request as a way to incite these protests.

“Among so many hooligans and dissatisfied with the result (of the elections), I report the occurrence of a crime, in theory, committed by the federal deputy Marcel van Hattem”

“He is using his position and legislative instruments and his social networks, commits acts of incitement to animosity between the Armed Forces and the constitutional powers and other institutions that took decisions to ensure law and order during and after the elections,” says an excerpt from Crispim’s request.

Sought by Gazeta do Povo, the deputy Van Hattem’s press office said that this action “does not even deserve an answer.

DECISIONS BY THE STF AND TSE ARE QUESTIONED BY JURISTS

During the election campaign and after the elections, the TSE presided over by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, determined the prior censorship of content and blocking of profiles on social networks.

In recent weeks, the court punished any request for clarification on electronic polls with fines or other measures that escape the provisions of Brazilian law.

Since the installation of the fake news inquiry in March 2019, the STF and, more recently, the TSE have adopted measures considered unconstitutional by several jurists.

The STF has started, for example, several ex officio inquiries (without being provoked and without recognizing the prerogatives of the Public Prosecutor’s Office), using in a strange way article 43 of the House rules, thus becoming judge, accuser, and victim in several proceedings – which hurts due legal process and the broad right of defense.

Among the federal deputies with an active mandate who had their profiles suspended by order of the TSE are Carla Zambelli (PL, right), Major Vitor Hugo (PL, right), Coronel Tadeu (PL, right), and José Medeiros (PL, right).

All are members of Bolsonaro’s PL party.

Among the candidates who were victorious in the polls this year, will take office in the House next year, and who were also censored are Gustavo Gayer (P, right) and Nikolas Ferreira (PL, right), who had the highest vote in the country in this year’s elections.

There are also several censored profiles, such as those of journalists, business people, and artists.

With information from Gazeta do Povo