PGR defends maintenance of Braga Netto’s arrest: ‘necessary, adequate, proportional’

The Attorney General, Paulo Gonet, defended on Monday that the Supreme Federal Court (STF) keeps former Minister Walter Braga Netto arrested preventively. Gonet called for the rejection of a request for freedom presented by Braga Netto’s defense last week.

For the prosecutor, the “exceptional restriction of the freedom to come and go” by Braga Netto “is still necessary, adequate and proportional and cannot be effective replaced by alternative precautionary measures at this time”.

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Braga Netto has been arrested since December, suspected of obstruction of investigations into an alleged coup attempt. In March, he became a defendant at the Supreme Court for the case, along with former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and six other allies.

Last week, his lawyers appealed a decision of Minister Alexandre de Moraes who rejected a request for freedom. The defense claims that there is no reason for him to remain arrested for more than five months and asks for his release, even with the imposition of precautionary measures.

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For Gonet, however, “the investigated attempts to embarrass the investigation” demonstrate the “indispensability of the extreme measure, since only the segregation of the aggravating can ensure the cessation of the practice of obstruction.”

The attorney general considered that the fact that the complaint was received by the Supreme Court does not rule out the possibility of interference in the investigation, as the so-called criminal instruction is underway, in which the evidence that will support the trial is produced.

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“In the present case, the concrete severity of the crimes, the harmfulness of conduct and the dangers of criminal reiteration and obstacle to criminal instruction are sufficient reasons to highlight contemporaneity and justify the maintenance of precautionary custody,” concluded the attorney general.