Scammer plot: Understand the crimes attributed to Bolsonaro by PGR

The Attorney General’s Office filed, on Tuesday (18), a complaint against former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and 33 people for crimes of violent abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law, attempted coup, criminal organization, criminal , damage qualified by violence and serious threat, and deterioration of listed assets. If they are convicted, Bolsonaro and the other accused can take up to 34 years in prison.

The prosecution is based on a Federal Police report that points Bolsonaro as leader of a group that tried to prevent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) in 2023. According to the inquiry, the former president ordered military and ministers to participate meetings to discuss a coup d’état. The plan would not have advanced for lack of support from the then army and aeronautics commanders, Marco Antonio Freire Gomes and Carlos de Almeida Baptista Júnior, who implied Bolsonaro in his statements.

The criminal organization “competed (…) through moral and material aid to the destruction, rendering and deterioration of the union’s heritage, with violence against people, serious threat, use of flammable substances and causing considerable damage to the Union,” says the complaint filed by Attorney General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet.

Read more:
PGR has a complaint against Bolsonaro for alleged coup acts
Bolsonaro’s complaint: what happens now with the case of the former president

Coup draft and murder planning

One of the main elements of the complaint is the meeting of December 7, 2022 at the Alvorada Palace. The meeting was attended by the Armed Forces Commanders and then advisor Filipe Martins, who would have read a coup draft aloud. Navy commander Almir Garnier Santos, made himself available to execute the coup, while Freire Gomes and Baptista Júnior refused to support any institutional rupture.

The PGR complaint also points out that Bolsonaro requested changes to the coup plan, which included the murder of President Lula, Vice Geraldo Alckmin and STF Minister Alexandre de Moraes. The Federal Police arrested four military personnel and a federal policeman suspected of planning the action, named “green and yellow dagger”.

The investigation points out that the draft was printed at the Planalto Palace by the then number two of the General Secretariat of the Presidency, General Mário Fernandes, who was arrested and indicted. According to investigators, on December 16, 2022, he made six copies of the document, possibly to distribute them in a meeting.

The next day, Fernandes and Filipe Martins were at the Alvorada Palace, where Bolsonaro would have told ministers that it was necessary to act before Lula’s inauguration. “If we react after the elections, Brazil will become chaos, a great guerrilla,” said the former president, according to the investigation.

Disinformation campaign and acts of January 8

The denunciation holds that Bolsonaro and allies used misinformation to undermine confidence in the electoral process and create an environment favorable to military intervention. Among the strategies was the meeting with ambassadors in July 2022, in which Bolsonaro questioned the safety of the electronic ballot boxes. The episode resulted in the ineligibility of the former president by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).

According to PGR, the coup plan began in 2021, with systematic attacks on the electronic voting system. During the second round of the 2022 elections, security agencies were mobilized to monitor voters and prevent votes on the opposing candidate.

In finding failures in the electoral system, those involved kept the fraud speech and encouraged the militancy to keep the camps assembled in front of army barracks in various capitals of the country.

Prosecutors point out that the violence of January 8 was the group’s last attempt from preventing Lula’s inauguration. The organization would have encouraged protests in front of barracks and pressured the Army’s high command to support a military uprising.

“The episode generated losses over R $ 20 million. Participants were escorted by DF military police, invaded and depredated the headquarters of the three powers, ”describes PGR.

Bolsonaro denies involvement and speaks of “political persecution”

On several occasions, Bolsonaro denied having participated in any coup plot. Last week he attributed the conclusion of the case to “political persecution.”

“I never debate a blow with anyone. If anyone came to talk about coup with me, I would ask: ‘And the day after? How do we stay before the world? ‘”The former president claimed.

“The word blow was never in my dictionary. I would never do something out of the four lines of the Constitution. You can solve everything in the four lines, ”he added.

The former president also minimized the so-called “scoring draft”, claiming that it was only a defense decree, which would depend on authorization from the National Congress to be implemented. He classified the investigation as “political persecution.”

With the formal denunciation, it will be up to the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to decide whether to accept the accusation and transform Bolsonaro into defendant.

Accusations against family members of the former president

In addition to the former president, former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro and federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP) were also cited in the scammer’s inquiry.

Although both were mentioned by Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, former Jair Bolsonaro orders and court collaborator, the investigators did not find enough elements that justified the duo’s liability.

According to Cid, Michelle and Eduardo were part of the radical wing around the former president and pressed him next with an alleged coup plan. In a statement to the PF in August 2023, he stated that both were constantly talking to Bolsonaro and tried to convince him that he would “support the people and the CACs (collector, shooter and hunter)” to remain in power.

“We investigate, as we find out, we do not find enough elements for several people, not only these two (Michelle and Eduardo). And so we made the conclusion that it had to be made, ”said the PF director.