STF drops criminal case against Sport full-back Igor Cariús | OneFootball

On Tuesday, the Second Panel of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) closed a criminal case regarding an alleged undue advantage received by Igor Cariús, left-back for Sport, who was accused of deliberately receiving a yellow card against Atlético-MG, while still playing for Cuiabá in 2022, to benefit gamblers.

According to the complaint filed by the Goiás State Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP-GO), Igor Aquino da Silva, professionally known as Igor Cariús, allegedly accepted R$ 30,000 to be booked. The defense filed a habeas corpus petition with the Goiás State Court of Justice (TJ-GO), but the request was successively denied by both the TJ-GO and the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), leading the defense to appeal to the STF.

In the judgment of the Ordinary Appeal in Habeas Corpus (RHC) 238757, under the rapporteurship of Minister André Mendonça, the dissenting opinion opened by Minister Gilmar Mendes prevailed. According to the senior minister, the conduct is reprehensible, but the yellow card was not enough to alter the outcome of the match and, therefore, cannot be considered a crime.

“An absolutely different situation would be verified if the defendant were accused of repeatedly and systematically seeking to artificially obtain yellow cards—which, in that case, could indeed influence the outcome of the competition and, consequently, have criminal relevance,” stated Gilmar Mendes.

Although the conduct does not qualify as a crime, Gilmar emphasized that the facts may eventually lead to disciplinary punishment, as they undermine the integrity of the sporting competition. This happened through a decision by the Superior Court of Sports Justice, which suspended Igor Cariús for one year.

The dissenting vote was supported by Minister Dias Toffoli. The rapporteur was overruled in his vote to uphold his decision. Ministers Nunes Marques and Luiz Fux did not participate in the session, with justification.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.