Moraes determines Carla Zambelli’s loss of mandate and annuls the Chamber’s vote
The minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), Alexandre de Moraes, determined this Thursday (11) the immediate loss of the mandate of federal deputy Carla Zambelli (PL-SP).
The decision annulled the vote of the Chamber of Deputies held this Wednesday (10). Furthermore, Moraes ordered the president of the Chamber, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), to swear in Zambelli’s deputy, Coronel Tadeu (PL-SP), within 48 hours.
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In his decision, the minister stated that the Chamber’s vote “occurred in clear violation of the Federal Constitution”. According to the minister, the Chamber’s vote was a “null act”, as the loss of mandate should be automatic after conviction by the STF.
“This is a VOID ACT, due to evident unconstitutionality, showing both disrespect for the principles of legality, morality and impersonality, as well as flagrant deviation of purpose”, wrote the minister.
According to the minister, the Constitution provides that, in these cases, the Chamber should only declare the loss of office of the parliamentarian convicted of a criminal offense with final judgment.
The order cited a series of precedents in the decision, such as the convictions of former senator Ivo Cassol and former deputy Paulo Maluf.
The judge also recalled Mensalão, highlighting that, in 2012, the STF decided on the possibility of automatic loss of parliamentary mandate, when there is a criminal conviction, due to the impossibility of deputies maintaining their mandate in the face of the suspension of political rights derived from the sentence.
Voting in the Chamber
The Chamber of Deputies decided to maintain the mandate of Carla Zambelli (PL-SP) this Wednesday (10), by rejecting by 227 to 170 votes the impeachment of the parliamentarian, imprisoned in Italy since July. 257 votes were needed to impeach the deputy.
The decision had reversed the STF’s conviction, which had ordered her to vacate her position after considering her involved in the invasion of the CNJ system with the help of hacker Walter Delgatti Neto.
The plenary vote contradicted the decision taken hours earlier by the Chamber’s Constitution and Justice Committee, which had recommended the impeachment. In 2022, Zambelli was the most voted woman in the country for the Chamber, with more than 946 thousand votes.
Conviction
The order was signed as part of the criminal execution process for Zambelli, who is currently imprisoned in Italy. The deputy was convicted by the STF in two cases.
The first is the invasion of the National Justice Council (CNJ) systems. According to the accusation, Delgatti issued a false arrest warrant against minister Alexandre de Moraes and had done so at the request of the parliamentarian. Zambelli denies having requested the action or participating in the preparation of the fraudulent document.
The second conviction was for the episode in which she chased a man with a gun in hand on election day in 2022. She was sentenced to ten years in prison and five years and three months in prison, respectively.
The deputy fled the country after her conviction, passing through Argentina and the United States before being arrested in Italy at the end of July.
*With information from Estadão Conteúdo.
