Professor: PGR's statement about Valdemar does not weaken Dino's decision

The Attorney General's Office (PGR) expressed its opposition to the measures adopted by the minister of the STF (Supreme Federal Court) Flávio Dino against Valdemar Costa Neto, which include the blocking of R$ 119 million. Despite this, for constitutional law professor Gustavo Sampaio, this position does not weaken, from a legal point of view, the judge's decision.

The information about the PGR's statement was found in Flávio Dino's own decision, which recorded the following excerpt: "the PGR expressed its opposition to granting precautionary requests, but stated the need to continue investigations into tracking the values". The investigation was carried out by CNN political analyst Caio Junqueira.

CNN questioned the PGR about the reasons that led the Prosecutor's Office to adopt this position and is awaiting a response at the time of publication.

Non-binding manifestation
In an interview with Hora H, constitutional law professor Gustavo Sampaio explained that, legally, the PGR's manifestation does not create any weakness in the decision. According to him, the Public Ministry performs two major functions in Brazilian law: that of inspector of the law and that of author of the action.

"There are times when the Public Prosecutor's Office issues opinions, issues opinions, issues its non-binding statements to instruct the court. But the judicial body is the one that makes its decision", said Sampaio.

The professor highlighted that, at this moment, the STF is not conducting criminal proceedings, but rather supervising the investigations carried out by the Federal Police within the scope of Operation Transparency, which seeks to verify the destination of parliamentary amendments.

"It's more data, but it's data from a non-binding statement from the Public Prosecutor's Office", he concluded.

Electoral impact of investigations
When asked about the potential electoral impact of the various ongoing investigations involving political figures, Sampaio recognized the direct relationship between law and politics in Brazil.

For him, the main demand that must be made to the STF is that it maintain impartiality and neutrality in all actions. "We are already seeing, at this point, that authorities of all stripes and ideological hues are being affected by the investigations," he said.

The professor emphasized that investigations need to be conducted seriously and within due legal process, without political chronology interfering with the investigative work.

"The result comes, no matter who it hurts, whether it hurts on the right or left, it doesn't matter", said Sampaio, adding that the facts investigated are "very serious".

Digital messages as evidence
Sampaio also commented on the growing role of messages exchanged by applications as a source of evidence in criminal investigations.

According to him, the generation currently investigated developed in an era before mass digital technology, which makes it an "analog generation that lives the digital world" and ends up leaving compromising records on these platforms.

However, the professor made an important caveat: digital messages alone would not be enough to generate convictions. "Would evidence like autonomous islands be capable of generating convictions? Not exactly, but they are important ways to obtain successful investigative results", he explained.

For Sampaio, what really matters is the set of evidence, which allows the police investigation to end with a conclusive report and the Public Prosecutor's Office to form its conviction for possible prosecution.

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Source: CNN