The Superior Court of Justice on Tuesday (Apr. 7) authorized the resumption of the case in Federal Court in Minas Gerais to determine the criminal liability of former Vale CEO Fabio Schvartsman in the 2019 dam collapse at the Córrego do Feijão mine in Brumadinho.

By a majority vote, the justices of the Sixth Panel of the Superior Court accepted an appeal from the Federal Prosecutors’ Office to overturn the March 2024 decision of the Federal Regional Court of the 6th Region, which had dismissed the criminal case against the former CEO.

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At the time, the court ruled that there was no evidence of Schvartsman’s involvement in the dam collapse and no justification for continuing the proceedings.

The case began being heard by the Court in September of last year and was suspended three times due to requests for review.

At the start of the trial, Schvartsman’s defense argued for upholding the TRF6 decision, stating that the Court had recognized that the former CEO could not be held liable.

The dam burst in January 2019, and more than 270 bodies were recovered from the tailings by the Fire Department.