Jorge Hage, the head of Brazil’s equivalent of the GAO (Controladoria-Geral da União – CGU), criticized the Brazilian Supreme Court for the way it has interpreted the principle that an accused person is innocent until proven guilty. According to Hage, the result is that the accused have an unfair advantage.
However, in a gesture of comity, Hage also praised the chief justice, Cezar Peluso, for his support of a constitutional amendment that would reduce the appeal process and shorten the path to jail.
The proposed amendment (PEC n° 15/2011) would allow the immediate execution of sentences after one appeal and permit someone found guilty to remain free only after a ruling by a superior court.
“The understanding of the Supreme Court of legislation on presumed innocence is just too favorable to the accused. It is practically impossible to send anybody to jail under the present rules,” declared Hage.
Supreme Court justice Marco Aurélio Mello said he was perplexed by the comments made by Hage, about how the court, by excessively guaranteeing 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. 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 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.
