Chief Justice requests special security for trial of the mensalão

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Carlos Ayres Britto, has requested that the country’s National Security Force – a kind of Special Forces (“Força Nacional de Segurança”) be used together with the Military Police of the Federal District (“Pólicia Militar do Distrito Federal”) to ensure security at the court during the trial of what is known as the big monthly allowance (“mensalão”) scheduled to begin on August 2.

According to the Supreme Court press office, Britto expressed security concerns at a meeting last Wednesday, July 18, with the minister of Justice, José Eduardo Cardozo. At that time, the Chief Justice informally asked if the Força Nacional could be placed outside the building during the trial.

The press office at the Ministry of Justice says Cardozo agreed to make the Força Nacional available as soon as a formal request is made, but also suggested that more reinforcements be brought in from the Federal District’s Secretary of Security. 

“Mensalão” is the name given to a case in which charges of vote buying were brought forth in 2005 during the first administration of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Under Brazilian jurisprudence elected officials and high-ranking political appointees, such as ministers, have what is known as privileged venue (“foro privilegiado”), meaning that they can only be tried before the Supreme Court. Suffice it to say that there is backlog of hundreds of cases against elected officials at the court, very few of them ever actually get to the trial stage and that in the history of Brazil only one elected official has ever been found guilty by the Supreme Court (the elected official was federal deputy José Fuscaldi Cesilio, aka Tatico, who was found guilty of social security fraud in September 2010).

Among the accused in the mensalão case is the president’s then-Chief of Staff ( a cabinet-level post, which means he was a minister) and a number of deputies.