Understand why Alexandre de Moraes released Valdemar da Costa Neto

Federal Supreme Court minister Alexandre de Moraes ordered the release of PL president, Valdemar Costa Neto. The leader underwent a custody hearing at the Regional Superintendency of the Federal Police, in the Federal District, this Friday, the 9th.

The politician, convicted of the monthly allowance, was arrested on Thursday, 8th, after federal police officers found a firearm allegedly illegally possessed in his home during searches by the PF operation. The federal officers also found a gold nugget that, according to the PF's first investigation, originated from mining.

According to Moraes, “some specific circumstances must be analyzed, since the person being investigated is elderly, 74 (seventy-four) years old, and would not have committed the crimes with violence or serious threat, with the objects being found inside his residence, at the time of executing a search and seizure warrant.”

Costa Neto's defense stated that possession of a stone 'does not constitute a crime, according to jurisprudence'. Furthermore, in a note, he also pointed out that the weapon is registered, has permitted use, belongs to a close relative and was forgotten several years ago in his apartment.

Valdemar came into the sights of the Federal Police because, according to investigators, he used money from the Liberal Party to reinforce the false narrative of fraud at the polls and, with that, try to legitimize the Bolsonarist demonstrations that were beginning to spread near Armed Forces facilities, after the second round of the 2022 elections. According to the PF, the party was “instrumentalized”.

The highlight of the strategy was the action filed by the party in the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to try to cancel the votes from 279,300 electronic voting machines, alleging that there was a “malfunction” in the system. The party was fined for “bad faith”.

After the second round, the PL asked for an “extraordinary check” of the ballot boxes used in the election. The party stated, without evidence, that there was a “break in the reliability of the data extracted” from part of the devices. The version was that Bolsonaro had 51.05% of the votes in the second round and won the dispute against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT). The alleged problem, according to the action, would be in ballot box models launched before 2020, which have a unique serial number.