Moraes votes to maintain the conviction of defendants from Core 3 of the coup plot

Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), voted this Saturday (14) to reject the appeals presented by seven convicts from the so-called Nucleus 3 of the coup plot. The motions for declaration are being analyzed by the First Panel of the Court in a virtual plenary session, with a deadline for voting until 11:59 pm on February 24th.

Rapporteur of the criminal action, Moraes defended the maintenance of the convictions imposed in November last year. According to him, embargoes are only applicable when there is obscurity, contradiction, omission or doubt in the decision, which, in his assessment, did not occur in this case.

The appeals were presented by Ronald Ferreira de Araújo Júnior, Hélio Ferreira Lima, Sérgio Ricardo Cavaliere de Medeiros, Wladimir Matos Soares, Rodrigo Bezerra de Azevedo, Fabrício Moreira de Bastos and Bernardo Romão Corrêa Netto. They question points of the collegiate’s joint decision, including individual participation in irregularities and the dosimetry of penalties. Moraes rejected the requests.

In his vote, Moraes stated that “embargoes for clarification are applicable when there is obscurity, doubt, contradiction or omission in the ruling that must be remedied. And none of these hypotheses are found in the embargoed ruling.”

“On the merits of the present criminal action, the appealed decision recognized in a well-founded manner the existence of an armed criminal organization, led by Jair Messias Bolsonaro and with the participation of the other defendants, which began in July 2021 and remained active until January 8, 2023, the consummation of the criminal offenses alleged in the complaint, with division of tasks and execution of a sequence of enforcement actions, having been composed, for the most part, by members of the Government Federal Government at the time, and by military personnel from the Armed Forces, and, consciously and voluntarily, had the objective of preventing and restricting the full exercise of the constituted powers, especially the Judiciary Branch, as well as, subsequently, the purpose of preventing the inauguration or deposing of the legitimately elected government in October 2022”, he argued.

The virtual trial continues until the 24th. In addition to Moraes, ministers Cármen Lúcia, Cristiano Zanin and Flávio Dino still need to vote. If there is no request for review or highlighting, the result will be announced after the deadline.

Core 3 Condemnations

Nucleus 3 was responsible for planning tactical actions to facilitate the coup and, according to the complaint, even discussed the kidnapping and murder of authorities, including Moraes himself, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin.

The group was mainly made up of military personnel, including members of the Army’s special forces known as “black kids”, as well as a federal police officer. In total, nine military personnel and one Federal Police agent were accused. Only General Estevam Theophilo was acquitted.

Among those sentenced to higher sentences, in an initial closed regime, are:

Bernardo Romão Corrêa Netto (17 years old);

Fabrício Moreira de Bastos (16 years old);

Hélio Ferreira Lima (24 years old);

Rafael Martins de Oliveira (21 years old);

Rodrigo Bezerra de Azevedo (21 years old);

Sérgio Ricardo Cavaliere de Medeiros (17 years old);

Wladimir Matos Soares (21 years old).

Everyone also received a 120-day fine.

Colonel Márcio Nunes de Resende Júnior (3 years and 5 months) and Lieutenant Colonel Ronald Ferreira de Araújo Júnior (1 year and 11 months) were convicted of crimes considered less serious, such as inciting animosity towards the Armed Forces and criminal association. They confessed to the crimes and signed agreements with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, replacing the sentences with Non-Prosecution Agreements, to be served in an open regime.