Five days before the municipal elections, the vice-president of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), minister Luís Felipe Salomão, accepted this Wednesday (2) the request from the defense of Anthony Garotinho (Republicans) suspending the challenge to his candidacy for councilor of Rio de Janeiro. With the decision, Garotinho is free to compete for the position.
The minister’s decision comes one day after the Regional Electoral Court of Rio de Janeiro (TRE-RJ) upheld the challenge to Garotinho’s candidacy for administrative improbity in 2018. The case involves alleged participation by Garotinho, former governor, in a scheme criminal who embezzled more than R$234 million from the Health sector during the government of his wife, Rosinha Garotinho.
Garotinho is going through a legal battle to run for a councilor seat in the Rio City Council.
On the 9th of last month, the Rio de Janeiro electoral court rejected the registration of the candidacy of the former governor. The action was filed by the 125th Electoral Prosecutor’s Office due to a conviction for administrative improbity, which establishes ineligibility for eight years, until 2026.
In the decision, judge Maria Paula Gouvêa Galhardo clarified that she denied registration because the former governor was convicted of a crime against property and money laundering.
In another previous decision, on August 20th, Minister Cristiano Zanin, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), suspended the effects of a decision by the Electoral Court in Rio de Janeirowhich prevented former governor Anthony Garotinho from running in this year’s municipal elections. Zanin’s decision was granted in habeas corpuswhich requests the nullity of the evidence on which the conviction for administrative improbity was based and is valid until the final judgment.
