Brazil's STJ orders arrest of judge convicted in Operation Faroeste after prosecutors report she left the country
Justice Og Fernandes granted a request from federal prosecutors, who reported that Sandra Inês Rusciolelli traveled to Lisbon in September; the order also covers her son, who was also convicted.
Translated from the Portuguese original by the Panorama newsroom. Read in Portuguese
Summary written by the Panorama newsroom from the sources listed below. Facts are attributed to the original publications.
Justice Og Fernandes of the STJ (Superior Court of Justice, Brazil's highest court for non-constitutional matters) ordered the arrest of appellate judge Sandra Inês Rusciolelli, of the Bahia State Court of Justice, who was sentenced to 14 years and 20 days in prison, to be served initially in a closed regime, for passive corruption and money laundering. The order, dated Thursday (5), also covers her son, Vasco Rusciolelli, convicted in the same case, Folha de S.Paulo reported.
The decision granted a request from the MPF (Federal Public Prosecutor's Office), which gathered information that the judge left Brazil on September 21 bound for Lisbon. For the justice, based on the prosecutors' arguments, the circumstance is a "strong indication of an intention to evade the application of criminal law."
According to the PGR (Office of the Prosecutor General), the trip was preceded by the provision of a false address: in August, mother and son reported a new residence in the case files, but a court officer could not find them there in October. Folha contacted the DPU (Federal Public Defender's Office), which defended the two at Wednesday's (4) trial, but received no response.
The criminal case stems from the Federal Police's Operation Faroeste, which investigated a scheme to sell court rulings to favor land grabbing in western Bahia. In 2021, Sandra signed the first plea bargain by an appellate judge in the country, but the deal, also signed by her son, was canceled in November 2024 at the request of the MPF, which argued that the two had stopped cooperating.
At the trial, public defender José Carvalho do Nascimento argued that the defense did not have access to part of the evidence and that the plea statements were not backed by other evidence. According to the MPF, mother and son negotiated R$ 4 million in bribes and actually received R$ 2.4 million.