09/13/2023 – 21:57
Moraes asks for 17 years in prison for the first defendant; Nunes Marques defends a sentence of 2 years and 6 months. PGR says that the objective of the acts was to overthrow the government and that Brazil “is no longer a banana republic”. The Federal Supreme Court (STF) began this Wednesday (13/09) the trial of the first four defendants accused of participating in the coup acts on January 8, when groups of extremists invaded and vandalized the headquarters of the Three Powers, in Brasília.
The Supreme Court judges five criminal actions, according to complaints presented by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR). The defendants face charges of coup d’état, armed criminal association, violent abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law, qualified damage and deterioration of listed property.
The first four defendants are Aécio Lúcio Costa Pereira, accused of acting in the destruction of the National Congress facilities; Mateus Lima de Carvalho Lázaro, arrested while leaving the Congress headquarters, in addition to Thiago de Assis Mathar and Moacir José dos Santos, both accused of involvement in the depredation at the Planalto Palace.
The PGR filed 1,390 complaints against people accused of participating in the acts. The remaining cases do not yet have a date to be sent to the STF plenary.
Brazil “is no longer a banana republic”
Deputy Attorney Carlos Frederico Santos, responsible for coordinating the investigations, stated during this Wednesday’s session at the STF that the accused were involved in “mob crimes”, which is why the prosecution does not need to point out the specific conduct of each defendant.
“The Federal Public Ministry does not have to describe the conduct of each of the perpetrators of the criminal act, but the result of the acts carried out by the mob, and it is not necessary to describe who broke a door, who broke a window or who damaged a work of art ”, he explained.
Santos stated that the objective of the acts was “to overthrow a government that was legitimately elected”. He highlighted that Brazil “has long stopped being a banana republic”, and that the coup d’état is “a turning point in our history”.
The PGR clarified that the crimes analyzed do not depend on the individual conduct of each of the participants – a thesis that was defended by lawyers – but rather on collective purposes. According to Santos, “the crowd, the mob, is responsible for the result”.
Moraes asks for 17 years in prison
The first defendant to be tried is Aécio Lúcio Costa Pereira. He invaded the Senate plenary on January 8 wearing a t-shirt that called for “federal military intervention” and recorded a video praising his participation in the acts.
Minister Alexandre de Moraes, rapporteur of the case, voted to sentence Pereira to a sentence of 17 years in prison, 15 years and 6 months in a closed regime, and a 100-day fine, each worth one third of the minimum wage. , which corresponds to more than R$40 thousand.
“There is no freedom of demonstration here to attack democracy, to call for institutional act number 5, to call for the return of torture, to call for the death of political enemies, the communists, to call for military intervention. This is a crime”, highlighted Moraes.
He argued that it is up to the STF to judge the action and said that the plenary already has 1,345 rulings that recognize the Supreme Court’s competence to process and judge cases.
Nunes Marques: “there are no arguments” for accusations of coup
The reviewer of criminal actions at the STF, Minister Kássio Nunes Marques, voted to sentence the defendant to a sentence of 2 years and six months in detention, minus the months he was already in prison. He argued that there are not enough arguments to accuse him of the crimes of attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, coup d’état and criminal association.
“The depredation of the buildings, which are the seats of the Republic’s powers, at no point threatened the authority of the dignitaries of each of the powers,” said Nunes Marques, appointed to the STF by former president Jair Bolsonaro.
The minister, who usually disagrees with his colleagues at the Supreme Court, also said that the case should be judged in the first instance, as opposed to being taken to the highest legal instance in the country.
The trial was suspended after Nunes Marques’ vote and will resume this Thursday morning with a statement from minister Cristiano Zanin. The four actions will be judged individually.
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