Eleven suspects arrested in Operation Car Wash granted habeas corpus

A habeas corpus has been granted to 11 of 24 suspects arrested as part of the Federal Police Operation Car Wash, Phase 7, designed to investigate a large corruption scandal involving Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras, politicians, and government contractors. A least six of them were released from the Federal Police Superintendency building in Curitiba on Tuesday evening (Nov. 18).

The eleven suspects are basically associates at construction companies suspected of bribing public officials to obtain contracts with Petrobras. The opinion of the judge in charge of the case, Sérgio Moro, was that they can await the result of the investigations at liberty because they had minor roles in the case. However, they will be blocked from leaving the country and will have to turn in their passports to the authorities. The judge said the investigators still need to further clarify the role of the suspects in the scandal, but there are no grounds for precautionary detention.

Moro has also ordered financial disclosure of banking records of contractor executives. At least 15 of the suspects arrested by Federal Police have had their bank accounts monitored. Among them are Renato Duque, former Director of Services, Petrobras; João Ricardo Auler, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Camargo Correa engineering; Ildefonso Colares Filho, CEO, Queiroz Galvão construction; Sérgio Cunha Mendes, Director, Mendes Júnior construction; and Agenor Franklin Magalhães, Director, OAS engineering. They are also among the prisoners who were sent to extended temporary custody or had their temporary detention terms converted into a more serious form of detention of suspects known as preventive detention.

Also as a development in the case, Supreme Court Justice Luís Roberto Barroso turned down a request from a bicameral Congressional Committee of Inquiry (CPMI) on Tuesday (Nov. 18) on Petrobras to have access to depositions heard under plea bargaining agreements. Some of the statements contained references to names of members of congress – who in Brazil are subject to special jurisdiction terms – which means that any such requests can only be made to the Supreme Court.

Barroso argued that prior to indictment, access to depositions made under plea bargaining terms is restricted to the judge, Public Prosecution representatives, the police chief in charge of the case, and the defense attorneys, excluding other officers even if at similar hierarchy and authority levels.

The Attorney-General Rodrigo Janot had argued against the CPMI's request in his opinion given to Justice Barroso. Among other reasons, Janot argued they should wait until the investigations are closed citing “great difficulty in ensuring the confidentiality of the facts being investigated, especially regarding the public nature of the activities of CPIs” (in a reference to congressional committees of investigation, whether those in a single house of congress [CPI] or bicameral [CPMI]).

Translated by Mayra Borges