Justice Gilmar Mendes of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) filed a proposal on Saturday (5) to bar police officers and military personnel from serving as loaned staff in the chambers of the court's justices. The filing goes to Chief Justice Edson Fachin amid an escalating standoff between the court and the Federal Police.
What the proposal covers
According to G1, the ban would cover members of the Armed Forces, the Federal Police, the Federal Highway Police, state civilian police forces, state military police and military fire brigades, and the federal, state and district prison police. Legal news outlet JOTA reports that the only exception would be security duties, and that the change requires amending the court's internal rules.
Under the current arrangement, two Federal Police delegados (commissioned federal investigators) advise Justice André Mendonça, who reports on sensitive cases including the Banco Master inquiry, the INSS benefits fraud investigation and the Lulinha case. Two more work in the chambers of Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
The background
The possible removal of the delegados was one of the causes of the dispute between Mendonça and Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues. According to sources heard by G1, Mendonça saw the attempt to pull delegados from his staff as a way to interfere with ongoing investigations.
Gilmar Mendes told interlocutors, according to G1, that the justices' chambers "were turning into police stations", with investigative decisions being made by the court instead of the Federal Police. Critics of the practice argue that delegados inside the court could affect the pace of inquiries, which the reporting justice is supposed to supervise.
Gilmar had earlier taken to Fachin a narrower version of the idea, limited to Federal Police delegados. He met President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday to discuss the Master bank crisis and, according to Valdo Cruz's blog at G1, told the president the government was slow to act to keep the dispute between Mendonça and Rodrigues from worsening.
Because it depends on a change to the internal rules, the proposal must be approved by the STF's full bench to take effect. G1 reports the measure may deepen internal friction at a court already strained by the crisis surrounding acts by Moraes and Mendonça.