Supreme Court justices condemn “spectacular” announcement of meat scandal

Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes on Tuesday (March 21) criticized the way Brazil's meat scandal was announced. He condemned reports with allegations that rancid meat tampered for sale could have tainted Brazil's meat exports as “spotlight grabbing”.

“A police chief decides to launch Brazil's biggest-ever raid and proclaims we have all been eating rotten meat, and that Brazil is selling spoilt meat to the world. Why would he do it? Because there are no more restraints to Brazil's ill politics, it's all running out of control,” the justice said.

At the same Supreme Court sitting, Justice Dias Toffoli said police should avoid making a “spectacle” out of raids, and that the court system should be careful in classifying authorized probes. “Had we been eating rotten meat, we wouldn't even be here now—we'd be in hospital. We wouldn't have clerks for our sessions, we couldn't be here because we'd have had some infection,” Toffoli said.

The scandal investigated under the so-called Operation “Weak Flesh” implicated agro-tycoons and agricultural inspectors who allegedly issued “safe” certificates for foods that were unfit for consumption. According to police, meat processing units had been “masking” and re-packing overdue meats and bribing food safety inspectors into approving products for sale without proper inspection.

Translated by Mayra Borges