The president of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) of Brazil, Edson Fachin, has granted a period of 72 hours to the magistrate of that same court André Mendonça to respond to the request presented by the Attorney General's Office (Attorney General of the Union). The objective of this petition is to annul the dismissal of the director general of the Federal Police (PF), Andrei Rodrigues, agreed upon by Mendonça after alleging that the PF secretly prepared reports about him and about the attorney general of the State, Jorge Messias.
"Notify the Honorable Magistrate André Mendonça, Rapporteur of Petition No. 16,662, to respond to the request within 72 hours," states the brief document from the STF consulted by Europa Press. In it, Fachin sets three days for the judge to explain the decision with which he removed Rodrigues and the head of Intelligence of the PF, Leandro Almada da Costa, due to the confidential preparation of those reports about his own figure and about Messias.
Fachin's resolution comes after the Attorney General of the Union requested "that the effects of Mendonça's decision be provisionally suspended" and also demanded his "immediate opinion (...) on the reasons" that led him to issue it, according to the document signed by the head of the agency and to which Europa Press has had access.
In that initiative, Messias denounces a "direct violation of the constitutional prerogative of the president of the Republic to appoint and dismiss the leaders of the Federal Police," which, in his view, entails "a serious risk to public order in its administrative and institutional dimension, sufficient to justify the suspension of the contested decision."
The order from Mendonça to remove Andrei Rodrigues and Leandro Almada da Costa from their functions in the PF came after the secrecy of the investigation regarding the aforementioned reports was lifted, a measure that had been previously ordered by the also Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes.
One of those documents about Mendonça attributes to him having acted to direct investigations against De Moraes and against the president of the Senate, Davi Alcolumbre (from the União Brasil-AP party), which, according to the text, would compromise "judicial impartiality and favoring specific political groups."
Likewise, the report points to the possible commission of crimes related to abuse of authority, administrative irregularities, and improper conduct in the exercise of the position, in relation to the processing of cases that affected Banco Master and the National Institute of Social Security (INSS).
The decision to lift the secrecy on these reports was made after Mendonça himself did the same with another police report that included messages sent by the former president of Banco Master, Daniel Vorcaro, to Judge De Moraes. As a result, De Moraes requested the Supreme Court to open a formal investigation into the actions of his colleague.