STF rejects criminal news against Zema, Nikolas and Cleitinho for speech about vaccination
Minister André Mendonça of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) rejected on Wednesday (3) a criminal news presented against the governor of Minas Gerais, Romeu Zema (Novo), Federal Deputy Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG) and Senator Cleitinho (Republicans-MG). The complaint claims that the three would have discouraged the vaccination of students from the state public school system.
The action was filed by Sara Azevedo, PSOL militant and former candidate for the Belo Horizonte City Council, after the release of a video in February 2024, in which Zema, alongside parliamentarians, stated that vaccination would not be mandatory for school attendance: “All students will have access to schools, regardless of whether they were vaccinated or not”.
Bolsonaro admits a chance of prison and says that country lives “complete legal insecurity”
Former President criticized STF and mentioned PGR’s dispatch to PGR about possible need for pre-trial detention
PL calls for suspension of STF action against branch, in amnesty climate test
PL maneuver wants to interrupt judgment on the STF based on the Constitution and can open the way to benefit also Bolsonaro
For Azevedo, the content could configure the crimes of causing epidemic, infringing preventive health measure and incitement to the crime. The candidate asked the Supreme Court to open an investigation against the three Minas Gerais politicians.
I want my access
However, Minister André Mendonça understood that it would not be up to the Supreme to analyze the request directly. According to him, the proper procedural path would be to trigger the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), which has the attribution of investigating authorities with privileged forum.
Criticism of the political use of the Supreme Court
In addition to rejecting the request, Mendonça warned about the frequent use of criminal news with objectives he classified as “politicians or personal self-promotion”.
“These communications against public authorities, made in a mistaken way directly to the Supreme Court, have reached very significant volumes, contributing to further overload the structure of the Court,” he said.
