Supreme Court justice rebuffs criticism and denies bias

A Supreme Court justice (“ministro”), Marco Aurélio Mello, said he was perplexed by the comments made by the head of the Controladoria-Geral da União – CGU, Jorge Hage, about how the court, by excessively guaranteeing (“garantismo”) the principle of presumed innocence, was being “too favorable to the accused.”

Mello said the first reason he was perplexed was because Hage was a former judge. Then, he said, there was the matter of the constitution. “The constitution is very clear in stating that no one can be considered guilty until a final decision (“até o trânsito em julgado”). That is in good Portuguese. Now, if he wants to rewrite the constitution, that is something else,” declared Mello.

The justice went on to say that sensationalistic arrests (“midiáticas”) and imprisonments without legal basis were a disservice and that in the end the Supreme Court would guarantee that a citizen’s constitutional rights were protected. “They say that the police arrest people and the courts release them. That is not true. The courts arrest and release them,” Mello concluded.