MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

De Moraes grants house arrest to former President Collor de Melo

De Moraes found Collor's health ailments proven and therefore his house arrest was in order

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) Alexandre De Moraes allowed Thursday former President Fernando Collor de Melo to serve his 8-year, 10-month sentence under house arrest, citing humanitarian grounds. The decision follows a defense request citing Collor's “chronic health conditions,” including “sleep apnea, Parkinson's disease, and bipolar disorder”—as well as his “advanced age of 75.” Collor must wear an “electronic monitoring device” and can only receive visits from his legal team.

On Wednesday, Attorney General Paulo Gonet gave a favorable opinion to Collor's house arrest: “The maintenance of the prisoner under house arrest is an exceptional measure and proportional to his age range and his health condition, whose seriousness has been duly proven,” he wrote.

The former president has been in prison for a week, after De Moraes decided that a last resort of the defense, which questioned the calculation of the sentence, had the objective of only delaying the imprisonment. The minister then determined Collor's immediate imprisonment.

Collor was sentenced by the STF to 8 years and 10 months for the crimes of passive corruption and money laundering, in a case linked to Operation Lava Jato (Car Wash). Collor was found to be accountable for political indications to BR Distribuidora, a subsidiary of Petrobras, for which he received bribes from company contracts between 2010 and 2014.

In his decision Thursday, De Moraes said that the defense presented vast documentation and that Collor's serious health situation was “amply proven.” He cited a medical report by neurologist Rogério Tuma and mentioned the sending by the defense of 136 different tests, including transcranial magnetic resonance imaging. “At the current moment of execution of the sentence, therefore, the compatibility between the Dignity of the Human Person, the Right to Health, and the effectiveness of Criminal Justice indicates the possibility of granting humanitarian house arrest,” wrote De Moraes. The decision was taken “with the real evidence of the progressive presence of serious non-motor and motor symptoms, including the history of recent falls,” he added.

Fernando Collor de Mello was elected president in 1989, in the first direct election to the post after the military dictatorship. He won on a platform of combating the “marajás”, presented as corrupt public servants and with inordinate salaries. Then 40 years old, the Rio de Janeiro-born politician, son of former senator Arnon de Mello, defeated Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva among other local politicians. However, his administration was marked by hyperinflation, which reached 89% per month, and by disastrous economic policies, such as the sudden confiscation of the money kept by Brazilians in savings accounts. The measure was announced one day after the post, on March 16, 1990, as part of the New Brazil Plan, and was explained as a “liquidity blockade” in the economy.

The idea was to reduce inflation by withdrawing money from circulation, at a time when the economy was much more based on the exchange of foreign currency. The confiscation, however, caused a paralysis of the economy and a crisis of confidence in financial assets. The result was a strong economic recession, with a 4.5% drop in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 1990 alone. Nearly 30 years later, in 2020, Collor asked for public apologies for the confiscation of the savings.

As a result of this measure, the electoral and political support of the Collor government began to deteriorate. Three years into his term, he would end up accused of corruption by his brother Pedro Collor de Mello in an interview with Veja magazine. A Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) was formed and in its final report concluded that Collor had directly benefited from a public funds diversion and influence peddling scheme set up by his campaign manager, PC Farias.

He was impeached and removed from office on Dec. 30, 1992. The day before, he had tried in vain to resign. He remained disenfranchised until 2000. He was elected senator for Alagoas in 2007. In 2022, he ran for governor of the State, but finished third. (Source: Agencia Brasil)