The former president of the Chamber and deputy impeached by the PMDB of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Cunha, was sentenced to 15 years and 4 months in prison this Thursday, the 30th. The decision was handed down by federal judge Sérgio Moro, responsible for the processes of the Operation Lava Jato in the first instance. Cunha has been imprisoned in Curitiba since last year. “The convict received an undue advantage when exercising his mandate as Federal Deputy, in 2011. The responsibility of a federal parliamentarian is enormous and, consequently, so is his culpability when he commits crimes. There can be no more serious offense than that of one who betrays the parliamentary mandate and the sacred trust that the people place in him for his own gain. He therefore acted with extreme culpability, which must also be assessed negatively”, stated the federal judge in the sentence. Moro accepted a complaint offered by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) that accused Cunha of receiving bribes in a Petrobras contract for oil exploration in Benin, Africa. Eduardo Cunha's defense stated that the decision will be made at the Federal Regional Court (TRF) of the 4th Region, in Porto Alegre (RS). “The speed with which the sentence was handed down is perplexing, which leads us to two conclusions: the defense's statement, for the judge, was a mere formality, given that, most likely, his Excellency already had, at least, a draft decision elaborate; and, once again, it tries to prevent the STF from judging the illegality of the provisional arrests it ordered”, he said.
