PGR Asks Brazil's Supreme Court to Freeze Parts of 2025 Ficha Limpa Overhaul

Overview

• The opinion, filed on January 6 in an ADI by Rede Sustentabilidade under Justice Cármen Lúcia, urges the STF to suspend specific provisions of the revised Lei da Ficha Limpa.
• Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet seeks to halt §4º-D and §4º-E, which start ineligibility from the first collegiate conviction in related cases, arguing they let later, harsher rulings lose effect.
• Gonet asks the court to rule that the ineligibility clock pauses while a convict’s political rights are suspended by a final criminal sentence to avoid concurrent penalties that nullify the ban.
• The filing contests a rule making diplomation the last moment to reassess eligibility and a requirement that sentences’ dispositive sections explicitly cite patrimonial damage and illicit enrichment, citing legal certainty and STF precedent favoring the election day cutoff.
• The PGR supports keeping the cap that unifies multiple improbity-based ineligibilities at up to 12 years, while the case’s outcome could affect figures who invoke the new timing rules, including José Roberto Arruda.