The second panel of the Federal Supreme Court should conclude in the next few days the judgment that will decide whether to maintain or release the former governor of Rio de Janeiro, Sérgio Cabral, to serve his sentence in a home regime. The politician has been in custody since 2016. 
With the trial resumed this Friday (9), Minister André Mendonça voted in the virtual plenary session against maintaining the prison, which, according to him, “is unreasonable”. “In view of the long period that has elapsed since the arrest decree and the significant change in factual circumstances, one notes the insubsistence of the grounds that justified custody,” said the minister.
In June, the rapporteur of the case, Minister Edson Fachin, had already voted in favor of maintaining the prison, and, in October, after requesting a review, Minister Ricardo Lewandowski opened the divergence and voted for the end of the prison. The virtual modality of the judgments does not need oral exposition of the ministers, but only the vote accompanying or diverging from the rapporteur. The score so far is 2 votes to 1 for Cabral’s freedom. The votes of ministers Gilmar Mendes and Nunes Marques are still missing.
Historic
Cabral was arrested as part of Operation Lava Jato, accused of receiving bribes to benefit businessmen in works such as the renovation of Maracanã and the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) for Favelas. In 35 cases – 33 in Federal Justice and two in Rio de Janeiro – he was sentenced in 23 federal criminal actions to more than 425 years in prison, but recent decisions by the STF may cause some of these convictions to be modified or annulled.
Cabral is the only well-known politician denounced in Operation Lava Jato who remains in a prison. The former governor is at the Special Prison Battalion of the Military Police, in Niterói, in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro.
