Turnaround in the case of the Santa Catarina businessman accused of ordering murder

Defense of the main accused reveals that the victim was attacked the day before his statement to the MP and anticipates that he will request suspension of the process to investigate the “burning of files”. Open investigations into a meatpacking cartel could turn the murder case of businessman Adélcio Haubert, former vice-mayor of Santa Maria do Herval, into a judicial imbroglio. The defense of Santa Catarina businessman Cristiano de Bem Cardoso, 44, accused of ordering the murder, brings to light enigmatic details and reveals that he will request the suspension of criminal proceedings until they are investigated. He maintains the client’s innocence and suggests that Haubert’s death was a file burning ordered by a meat industry mafia. “As logical as it may be, this possible motivation was not properly investigated, which causes us indignation and perplexity. Once proven, it excludes Cristiano and casts suspicion on other people”, declares lawyer Cláudio Rodrigues Neto. Amid inconsistencies highlighted in the police investigation, he claims that there was even a false anonymous complaint to the Police to accuse Cardoso. The suspension will be requested this Tuesday at the Dois Irmãos forum, in the appeal against last month’s court decision that made the businessman a defendant. On the day Haubert was shot in his living room, in Santa Maria do Herval, on the night of October 21, 2020, and died five days later in hospital. He was 65 years old. His wife, who was watching television next door, was injured by fragments of the projectiles.

Haubert case: Cricium businessman Cristiano Cardoso accused of ordering the murder of the former vice mayor of Rio Grande do Sul could be acquitted – Photo: Disclosure/ND

“Now, the morning after the attack, the victim would be interviewed by the Public Ministry regarding an investigation against a meat-packing cartel. Everything indicates that he would give a scathing testimony. It remains to be seen in the process who would be harmed within this powerful group, which certainly wasn’t Cristiano”, emphasizes Rodrigues Neto. Slaughterhouse mafia is in secret action. The investigation into the cartel, initiated in 2015 by the Special Action Group to Combat Organized Crime (Gaeco) of the MP, became a legal process in October 2021 in the district of Lajeado. There are businesspeople and employees in the sector reported, from different regions of the State. The Prosecutor’s Office handles the case with absolute confidentiality. “In relation to these investigations or proceedings, they are under judicial secrecy. The MP cannot disclose absolutely anything in relation to this matter so as not to defy a court order”, the agency declared to the reporter. According to witnesses, the center of the accusation involves the division of territory (squares), routes and product prices. In other words, typical cartel practice. “The defense is doing the job that should be done by the prosecution.” The lawyer considers the MP’s decision to denounce Cardoso and two others investigated last month surprising and contradictory.