The former head of the group of prosecutors of the anti-corruption operation Lava Jato Deltan Dallagnol lost on the night of this Tuesday, May 16, the mandate of the federal deputy for which he was elected in the elections in October 2022 and which he accepted on February 1 last year.
Dallagnol’s parliamentary mandate was unanimously annulled by seven judges of the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil’s highest electoral body.
The TSE tracked down the former prosecutor’s mandate under the so-called Clean Record Act, which prohibits the election of candidates convicted by a collegiate court or judges and prosecutors who resign from their positions to avoid punishment.
In November 2021, Deltan Dallagnol resigned as public prosecutor and left the Federal Public Ministry for personal reasons, but at that time there were at least 15 preliminary proceedings against him, that is, internal investigations that could lead to prosecution and conviction, in the National public ministry council (CNMP).
Dallagnol’s lawyers argued that since this preliminary hearing was not yet formal, the former prosecutor had not broken the law.
But the unanimity of the TSE judges understood that the number of procedures was so high and the signs of violations were so obvious that some or all of these preliminary procedures would necessarily lead to prosecution and punishment, and that Deltan understood this and stepped down precisely in order to evade the law, avoid a criminal record, and enter politics.
Deltan can appeal to the TSE itself and, depending on the outcome of that appeal, also to the STF, the Federal Supreme Court, but the effects of Tuesday’s election judge’s decision are immediate, and today he is no longer deputy.
Along with former judge Sergio Moro, elected senator in October, who presided over the trials of Lava Jato and even convicted and sent to prison in 2018, current President Lula da Silva, Dallagnoll, became famous for the tough and largely indirect way in which he coordinated more than 50 prosecutors and prosecutors in that anti-corruption operation and became a folk hero and an example of law enforcement.
But years later, the actions of the two were annulled by the Supreme Court for abuse and due process, and they were found to have tampered with evidence to convict the defendants.
Author: Domingos Grilo Serrinha This Correspondent in Brazil
Source: CM Jornal
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