With habeas corpus, Prevent doctors do not testify to the CPI in São Paulo

Four doctors from Prevent Senior stopped participating this Thursday (4) in the session of the CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) of the City Council of São Paulo established to investigate the operator’s performance during the Covid pandemic.

Among them is cardiologist Rodrigo Barbosa Esper, leader of the Prevent study on the use of hydroxychloroquine in patients suspected of having Covid. The four would testify as guests. According to councilors, the doctors wanted to attend virtually, which was not accepted. With the impasse, they ended up being summoned to the next Thursday session (11).

Lawyers representing the doctors also got on Wednesday (3) a preventive habeas corpus that exempts them from the commitment to tell the truth and guarantees the rights to remain silent, not incriminate and be accompanied by a lawyer. Judge José Fernando Steinberg, who signed the decision, considered that they cannot appear as witnesses, as they represent the investigated company.

In a statement, Prevent stated that the CPI itself had provided the virtual testimony and that the doctors were available, “with links sent by the Chamber, when the work was closed”.

The company also says that “it remains at the disposal of the authorities to collaborate with investigations” and that “habeas corpus is one of the main instruments of the democratic State in guaranteeing the constitutional right to defense”.

In the request for habeas corpus, the doctors stated that they suffer “the threat of illegal embarrassment, issued by the president of the Parliamentary Inquiry Commission”, councilor Antonio Donato (PT), “due to the summons to give testimony”.

Councilors considered habeas corpus unnecessary, since doctors Sergio Antonio Dias da Silveira, Rodrigo Barbosa Esper, Daniella Cabral de Freitas and Rafael de Souza da Silva are not considered investigated.

“In our opinion, this habeas corpus was unnecessary, we are at the beginning of the investigation. We do not invite as an investigated. Prevent Senior is investigated,” said Donato.

“Unfortunately, they take two measures to hinder the CPI. The first was habeas corpus. They were not investigated and now they put themselves in the opinion of the investigated,” said the councilor. The second measure would be the non-attendance.

With that, they must be investigated. Donato stated that, after the second unanswered call, there would be coercive conduct.

Councilor Xexéu Tripoli (PSDB) said: “If they believe there is a need for a habeas corpus not to speak, I think this is much more serious than any speech. Because when you don’t want to speak, it’s because you’re feeling guilty.”

Celso Gianazzi (PSOL) said that habeas corpus is an aberration. The councilor maintained that the doctors were invited to give the contradictory to other statements at the CPI.

“There was no illegal constraint in the invitation made to these doctors. So, I think it is disrespectful to the CPI for them not to attend,” he said.

The councilors also stated that the CPI takes place in a technical context, without political motivations.

A fifth doctor, Carla Morales Guerra, sent a message to the CPI saying she lives in Fortaleza and offered to schedule a face-to-face deposition on another occasion. Therefore, she was not summoned like the other colleagues.

“Of course we will treat differently. We will schedule with Dr. Carla the possibility of her attending by invitation and giving her testimony, unlike the four cases discussed here by the Prevent Senior lawyer. I hope he is acting in defense of the rights of his clients. customers, not just the company,” said Donato.

Prevent Senior, which has 550,000 policyholders, entered the radar of Covid’s CPI, in the Senate, after receiving a dossier of 15 physicians from the operator. In the document, they report that patients, without consent, were used as guinea pigs for studies with drugs against Covid-19. The company is also accused of defrauding death certificates.

The CPIs in the Chamber can have 120 days, renewable twice for an equal period, making the work last for almost a year.

During the CPI, lawyers’ statements from doctors said that Prevent Senior’s management charged “heavenly highs” to free up unit beds for patients considered VIP. In addition, patients and relatives of people served by the operator participated in the session and reported their perceptions about the company’s practice of trying to convince family members of elderly people to adopt what they called palliative care. The measure, they said, would not have the objective of improving the quality of life and extending the patient’s survival.

Prevent states that “it has never treated its patients by adopting procedures with the objective of reducing costs or freeing up beds. This is a false, misleading narrative, with the objective of affecting the company’s image”.

Aldermen sent a note stating that “it is not true that Prevent Senior’s CPI has provided the health operator’s doctors with ‘virtual testimony’.

“The approved application inviting the doctors to testify made it clear that the testimony would be in person, in the plenary of the City Council. On Wednesday night (3/11), at 7:14 pm (outside protocol hours), the doctors’ lawyer sent e- email confirming their testimonials ‘through the app’,” the note reads.

According to the Chamber, the email was sent to the CPI secretariat. “Since this is a matter related to the change in the status of testimonies, subject to the committee’s deliberation, the lawyer’s message should have been addressed directly to the president of the CPI, councilor Antonio Donato, as the lawyer representing the deponents must know. of the protocol time, the secretariat of the CPI limited itself to replying thanking the confirmation of the testimonies”, says the note.