Jurist: to accept impeachment request on a “whim” is parliamentary coup

For Professor Luiz Moreira Gomes Júnior, adviser to Public Prosecution

Publicado em 07/12/2015 - 20:01 Por Paulo Victor Chagas reports from Agência Brasil - Brasília

Brasília - O ministro da Justiça, José Eduardo Cardozo, o Advogado-Geral da União, Luís Inácio Adams, e juristas em entrevista coletiva após reunião com a presidenta Dilma Rousseff (Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil)

Jurists had a meeting on Monday (Dec. 7) with President Dilma Rousseff to deliver reports and draft a manifesto against impeachment proceedings. Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil

Jurists had a meeting on Monday (Dec. 7) with President Dilma Rousseff to deliver reports and draft a manifesto against impeachment proceedings. They claim there are no legal bases for the case to move forward. According to the lawyers, a "fundamental inadequacy" in the request is the fact that lawmakers have not analyzed the presidential accounting practices yet.

For Professor Luiz Moreira Gomes Júnior, national adviser to Public Prosecution Office, "it is very clear to the Brazilian legal community" that the request is not grounded on constitutional basis. Moreira said that Lower House Speaker Eduardo Cunha (member of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party—PMDB), who accepted to initiate proceedings, has no “credibility", nor "integrity" to present himself as the protagonist of the process.

For Moreira, the situation can be considered a "parliamentary coup." "Society needs to understand, citizens will understand that a president's term of office, like Dilma's, cannot be questioned by someone who is involved in several legal processes in the Supreme Court," said Moreira, doctorate in law. When granting an interview to journalists after the meeting with the president, the jurist has also referred to the fact that the proceedings had been initiated right after the Workers' Party's (PT) members announced they would vote against Cunha on the lower house's Ethics Committee.

"We are discussing the whim of an authority of the Republic, who has been contradicted by the president's party, decided to accept the impeachment request, and all institutions of the Republic and civil society were subjected to his whim," he reported .

In the document, legal experts declared support for the government's continuity until 2018, they condemned "authoritarian breaks" and claim that there are "no legal bases" for impeachment. As appeared in a copy of the manifesto distributed by the Communications Secretariat of the Presidency, more than 70 lawyers have already signed the document.

According to Rosa Cardoso, lawyer and PhD in political science, for impeachment proceedings, it is required to commit a crime. Rosa Cardoso understands that it was not possible to provide justification nor  typical characteristics of crime in the process under review. "One fact can only be account for someone if there is justification on criminal perspective. This is criminal materiality, and criminal materiality is not to have done anything. Criminal materiality is for something considered a crime," she stated.

For Juarez Tavares, retired federal prosecutor-general, among other “crimes of responsability”, there are "serious offenses that violate the Constitution.” "Minor offenses, and administrative irregularities that may occur during presidential term have not been added," he said.

During the press conference, some of those responsible for the reports declared they defend President Dilma Rousseff's term of office "regardless their party's color" and they were not speaking for the government, but as experts on the subject.

When expressing himself, Professor Francisco Queiroz Cavalcanti, from Federal University of Pernambuco, considered the merits of the arguments offered by the authors of the request. According to Cavalcanti, we cannot account for "short delays" from the National Treasury to finance banks like National Development Bank (BNDES), Caixa Econômica Federal and Banco do Brasil.

Cavalcanti argues that the country is facing an "absolutely negative" economic situation and that "support measures" had to be adopted. "What did the president took possession of? Nothing. What did she do? What did she know? They have been trying to attribute responsibility. It would be better to shortly delay payments to Caixa [Econômica Federal] than to leave many people without recourses," he said, referring to the payment of the Bolsa Família conditional cash transfer program.

For Marcelo Labanca, doctorate in law, since there was no direct personal act of the president, the so-called“crime of responsibility” cannot have been committed. Labanca pointed out that they need to analyze, in this case, whether there was an intent to defraud, and not just "any illegal act." "The crime requires a fraud, an intention of dishonesty. They have not found any action that would ouster the president. The rights are being manipulated for political purposes," he declared.


Translated by Amarílis Anchieta


Fonte: Jurist: to accept impeachment request on a “whim” is parliamentary coup

Edição: Nádia Franco / Olga Bardawil

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