Overview
- The Supreme Federal Court’s Second Chamber upheld Minister Cristiano Zanin’s March decision to annul Anthony Garotinho’s Operação Chequinho conviction in a 4–1 virtual vote on Tuesday.
- Zanin ruled that key evidence was illicit because documents were extracted irregularly from a computer of the municipal Secretariat of Development in Campos dos Goytacazes, breaking the chain of custody and undermining their reliability.
- The annulled conviction had found Garotinho guilty of electoral corruption, criminal association, suppression of public documents and coercion and had rendered him ineligible for office.
- The Prosecutor General’s Office appealed Zanin’s ruling through the electoral prosecutor but the Second Chamber rejected the appeal with Minister Luiz Fux as the sole dissenting vote.
- The ruling removes an immediate legal obstacle to Garotinho’s reported run for federal deputy and may shift campaign dynamics in Rio as the PGR weighs further legal options.