The Chamber’s Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) approved on Wednesday (03/07) a bill that allows custody hearings for prisoners to be held via videoconference. The project will go to the Senate.
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Custody Hearings
Established in 2015, in custody hearings the person who is arrested must be taken to the presence of a bail judge within 24 hours, with the presence of a lawyer or the Public Defender’s Office. The magistrate assesses the legality of the arrest and arrest and whether there will be precautionary measures and investigates, through evidence and reports, whether there was ill-treatment or torture.
Pandemic
With the COVID-19 pandemic, hearings were suspended and, in 2021, allowed via videoconference for the duration of the health emergency. Videoconference hearings were revoked in 2022 and, in 2023, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) determined that, in cases of urgency, it could be held by videoconference.
Cameras 360
The text says that in the case of hearings via videoconference, the hearing must be carried out with 360-degree cameras or with the use of more than one camera in the environment. An external camera will also be needed to monitor the prisoner’s entry and a previous corpus delicti examination of the prisoner.
Analysis:
The approval of the bill by the Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) of the Chamber of Deputies, which allows custody hearings to be held via videoconference, represents a significant advance for the Brazilian judicial system, adapting to contemporary technological and health needs.
Despite the benefits, such as agility and reduced costs and risks in the transport of prisoners, the implementation of hearings via videoconference brings challenges, especially in ensuring effectiveness in assessing prisoners’ conditions and the privacy of communications with their lawyers.
The measure is criticized by human rights defenders and entities, who say that it does not guarantee the safety of prisoners and the verification of mistreatment.
Source: O Globo.
