Overview
- The decision has general repercussion, setting a precedent that binds all lower courts in similar cases across Brazil.
- Relator Alexandre de Moraes’ thesis permits simultaneous proceedings with distinct sanctions, including up to five years in prison for the electoral crime and potential loss of political rights under the improbity law.
- If the Electoral Court recognizes the absence of the act or the defendant’s authorship, that finding must carry over to bar the administrative improbity case.
- Minister Gilmar Mendes concurred with reservations, noting that the final interpretation may be shaped by the pending ADI 7.236 on the Improbity Law.
- In the underlying dispute, the Court denied former São Paulo councilor Arselino Tatto’s appeal, affirming that the Common courts may judge improbity even when the conduct also constitutes an electoral crime.