Brazil: Supreme Court justice rejects request to jail senators, ex-president
Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki rejected a request from the Prosecutor-General's Office to arrest Senator and Congress President Renan Calheiros, Senator Romero Jucá, and former president and senator José Sarney.
In his ruling issued on Tuesday (Jun. 14), Zavascki said there are no grounds to order them to prison. “Unlike what the Prosecutor-General [Rodrigo Janot] has said, there is no evidence—based on the facts presented—that the mentioned Congress members have committed blatant unbailable crimes, nor is there sufficient probable cause,” the justice said in his ruling.
In the same ruling, he decided to declassify plea bargaining statements heard from Sérgio Machado, the former chair of Petrobras's transport and pipeline subsidiary Transpetro, which prompted the Prosecutor-General to file his request for the prison orders. Requests seeking search and seizure warrants against Calheiros, Jucá and Sarney have also been rejected by Zavascki.
Translated by Mayra Borges
Fonte: Brazil: Supreme Court justice rejects request to jail senators, ex-president
