Earlier this month, the Brazilian Minister of Justice Sergio Moro presented a bill proposing an “anticrime package,” establishing “measures against corruption, organized crime and crimes committed with serious violence.”
The bill proposes modifications in fourteen laws, ensuring the enforcement of the conviction after an appellate court judgment, increasing the effectiveness of the jury, guaranteeing the serving of the sentences, increasing the penalties for crimes related to firearms, reforming the crime of “resistance,” and criminalizing slush funds.
Among all the measures, the introduction of two new legal practices should be highlighted — negotiated solutions and whistleblower incentives.
The bill proposes to introduce two articles in the Code of Criminal Procedure (Decree-Law No. 3,689/1941), regulating conditions and rules for non-prosecution agreements between the Brazilian Public Prosecution Service and offenders, and one article in the Administrative Improbity Act (Law No. 8,429/1992), allowing settlements, agreements and conciliations (with rules similar to the Leniency Agreements and Plea Bargaining) for the offenses provided in that act, which are forbidden today.
Regarding whistleblowing, the bill proposes amendments to the Law No. 13.608/2018, obliging all public entities to establish reporting channels for crimes and administrative misconduct. It also establishes rules for protecting whistleblowers against retaliation and ensuring their anonymity and proposes an award of up to 5 percent of the amount recovered by the public administration.
It also changes the rules on motions for rehearing (embargos infringentes), on self-defense, on the form of confiscation of proceeds of the crime (authorizing them to be used), on videoconference interrogations, on the legal concept of criminal organizations, on the legal regime of federal prisons, and other measures that seek to avoid the statute of limitation, to facilitate the prosecution of complex crimes with electoral reflexes, to hinder the release of habitual criminals, and to improve investigations.
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Lucas Zanoni , pictured above, is a Compliance Analyst at Zanoni Equipment. He studied history and law at the University of São Paulo and was a researcher in the fields of Fiscal History and Anti-corruption. He interned at ID Global, an institute of research and experimental development in social and human sciences. He can be contacted here.
2 Comments
Congratulations Lucas! Always with excellent analysis of the political situation Brazilian. However, despite the measures attack some causes of impunity, so far the current government continues paralyzed in measures that can reduce employment that take nearly 20 million people who would like to go back to the labor market. The reduction of indices crime pass by adjustments economic. We will wait to see something diferent in tfe economy!
Allowing settlements, agreements and conciliations (with rules similar to the Leniency Agreements and Plea Bargaining) for the offenses provided in that act, which are forbidden today in Brazil, similar to the US legislation, has received a lot of criticism.
The danger of criminals confessing anything to avoid or minimize conviction actually exists.
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