Why could Bolsonaro be held criminally liable for negligence?

President Jair Bolsonaro has made up his mind: he will not sign the decree regulating the electronic betting market (fixed-odds betting) in Brazil. The head of the Executive branch has had the document in his hands since mid-July, but chose to turn a blind eye until he missed the deadline to sign the decree and a provisional measure that provides for the regulation of this market last Monday, the 12th. Due to this omission, Bolsonaro could be held accountable for a crime of responsibility against probity in administration, as stipulated in Law 1.079 of 1950, reveals the Economic Radar on Veja.com.

Article nine of Chapter V of this law stipulates that it is a crime of responsibility to "willfully omit or delay the publication of laws and resolutions of the Legislative Branch or acts of the Executive Branch." Since the bill was approved by Congress and signed into law by Michel Temer in 2018, the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of the Civil House worked together to regulate the market over the past four years. Bolsonaro, by his own decision, chose to violate the law and may be penalized alone for it.

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LAW No. 1.079, OF APRIL 10, 1950.

It defines crimes of responsibility and regulates the respective trial process.

 

CHAPTER V

CRIMES AGAINST PROBITY IN ADMINISTRATION

Article 9. The following are crimes of responsibility against probity in administration:

1 – Willfully omitting or delaying the publication of laws and resolutions of the Legislative Branch or acts of the Executive Branch;