November 1, 2021

19:11

Marcela Leiros – from Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – The scheme of illegal collection of part of the salaries of public employees, known as “rachadinha”, is the target of action against the federal lawmaker Silas Câmara (Republicanos/AM) from 20 years ago at the Supreme Court (STF). This month, the case, which was scheduled to be judged on November 11, was “excluded”, without explanation, from the agenda by the president of the Supreme Court, Luiz Fux. The lawsuit is still in progress.

Known for belonging to the Evangelical bench in the House of Representatives, Silas Câmara was accused by former employees and then by the Public Ministry of having embezzled more than R$ 140,000 in public funds by using the salaries of secretaries appointed by him.

The case began to figure in the STF in 2013, but the trial started on November 20 last year, in virtual plenary. Two ministers have already voted in favor of the conviction: Luis Roberto Barroso and Edson Fachin, but the trial was suspended at the time.

Minister Kássio Marques asked for access to the case because he did not feel able to vote. Barroso is the reporting justice in Criminal Case 864 and, in addition to voting for the conviction of the congressman, he set a sentence of five years and three months in prison, in addition to the loss of the congressman’s mandate and the return of R$248,205.93 to the public coffers.
 
For the ministers who voted in favor, so far there is sufficient evidence that Silas Câmara embezzled the amount between the years 2000 and 2011. The trial was removed from the calendar by the president of the STF, Luiz Fux.

Mystery and slowness

Sought by CENARIUM, the STF press office, on Friday, 29, did not explain why the president of the Supreme Court, Luiz Fux, decided to exclude Silas Câmara’s case from the November trial calendar. There is no justification in the Supreme Court system.

Reached, the federal lawmaker Silas Câmara informed this Sunday, 31, that he has already been acquitted in all instances in the civil area and believes he will be acquitted, also, in the Federal Supreme Court, in Brasilia, where he has already had two ministers against him.

In 2020, Silas tried to avoid the virtual trial, having requested that his defense be given the opportunity to present its response in person. The request was denied by the rapporteur. In an excerpt from his vote, Minister Barroso stated that there is evidence that “shows that the defendant, using the office of federal representative, diverted public funds intended for the payment of parliamentary aides, for his own benefit.

The minister Edson Fachin, following his colleague, said that the congressman took advantage of public office to receive amounts for his own benefit through the transfer of the salaries of servers.  

“The federal lawmaker Silas Câmara had the legal availability of public funds for the payment of the remuneration of parliamentary secretaries appointed by him and, thus, made the appointment of previously chosen people, taking for himself, through deposits or transfers to his current account, almost all the amounts intended by the House of Representatives to the payment of servers of the cabinet”, said Fachin in his vote.

‘Bolsonaro case’

The case of Silas Câmara is similar to senator Flavio Bolsonaro (Patriot), which, also, was denounced by the scheme of “rachadinha” and is with the processing suspended for more than a month in the Superior Court of Justice (STJ).

It was September 21, when the minister João Otávio Noronha, of the Superior Court of Justice, asked for more time for analysis and stopped the trial of an appeal filed by the defense of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro to cancel the investigation of the ‘rachadinhas’. 

The ministers were analyzing an appeal against the decision of the collegiate that rejected, in March, requests to cancel all measures taken by judge Flávio Itabaiana, of the 27th Criminal Court of Rio, who conducted the investigation in the first instance. Also in the case of Flávio Bolsonaro, the Justice has no deadline to finalize the trial.