Bolsonaro Defendant: See Summary of Accusations, Defense and Next Step of the Judgment in the STF

The First Class of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) decided, on Wednesday (26), to make defendants former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and seven allies for an alleged coup attempt.

The decision was taken unanimously, with five votes in favor of accepting the complaint Presented by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), including ministers Alexandre de Moraes, Flávio Dino, Luiz Fux, Carmen Lúcia and Cristiano Zanin.

The complaint also includes Another 33 reportedbut to facilitate the analysis of conduct, the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) divided the accusation into five nuclei. The group, which encompasses the former president, was the first to be analyzed by the STF.

The receipt of the complaint by the Court is a preliminary stage, in which the ministers understood that there was enough evidence to advance with the criminal action. Now, with the complaint accepted, The process goes to the instructional phasewhere there will be statements of defendants and witnesses, as well as other steps to clarify the facts and gather additional evidence.

Who are the accused?

In addition to Bolsonaro, seven other allies became defendants. They are:

1. Mauro Cid: Former Assistant of Orders of Bolsonaro and Lieutenant Colonel, considered a key piece in the investigation. Cid signed an award -winning report that revealed crucial details about the coup plot.
2. Walter Braga Netto: Former Minister of Defense and Civil House, former vice presidential candidate in 2022. Accused of articulating the coup and trying to interfere with the investigations.
3. Alexandre Ramagem: Former ABIN director and federal deputy. Accused of being one of the articulators of the coup, with messages that guide Bolsonaro to question the electronic ballot boxes.
4. ALMIR GARNIER: Former Navy Commander. Investigated for being available to support the coup and press the Army’s high command to join the plot.
5. Anderson Torres: Former Minister of Justice and Public Security. Accused of omission during the attacks of January 8 and having prepared a draft decree to establish a state of defense.
6. Augusto Heleno: Former GSI minister, accused of planning a “crisis office” to generate military support to the coup.
7. Paulo Sérgio Nogueira: Former Defense Minister, also accused of supporting the coup and trying to get support from military commanders for the elaboration of the coup decree.

The accusations against Bolsonaro and his allies

Bolsonaro and the other accused are imputed to lead an armed criminal organization, which would have associated to attack Brazilian democracy.

The complaint is based on a report by the Federal Police, which points to the former president as the main articulator of a plan to prevent the inauguration of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) in 2023. The former president would have attended meetings with military and ministers to discuss a coup d’état, which, according to the accusation, involved the use of violence and serious threat.

• About the criminal organization: The criminal organization “has competed (…) by 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 the Attorney General, Paulo Gonet.

• January 8: In addition, Bolsonaro is accused of involvement in the attacks of January 8, 2023, when protesters invaded the buildings of the three powers in Brasilia. Despite not having participated directly in the acts of vandalism, it is responsible for inciting the radicalization of protesters and do not take steps to prevent attacks.

• The prosecution also includes the crimes of attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law and coup.

• 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.

Possible

According to the complaint filed by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), accepted by the Supreme Court, if convicted, they may face penalties that would reach up to 43 years in prison.

What the STF ministers said

• Alexandre de Moraes: During the trial, the Minister Rapporteur of the case stressed that the evidence presented by the PGR is sufficient to justify the opening of the criminal action.

Moraes also reaffirmed that the complaint satisfactorily describes the facts and the participation of the accused, noting that this procedural moment is not to evaluate the acquittal or convictionbut only to verify the materiality of crimes.

• Flávio Dino: The minister refuted the attempts to minimize acts of January 8, remembering that the 1964 military coup also resulted in immediate deathsbut triggered an exception government in Brazil. For Dino, the fact that there is no immediate deaths does not misrepresent the coup.

• Cármen Lúcia: The minister, in turn, reinforced the severity of the events in Brasilia, and, in an emphatic way, stressed that the people who participated in the invasion were not acting on their own, refuting the idea that the Acts of vandalism would be an “isolated act”.

• Luiz Fux: The minister also commented, noting that the gravity of acts cannot be minimizedand it is impossible to say that “nothing happened,” referring to the impact of attacks against democratic institutions.

• Cristiano Zanin: The President of the First Class denied allegations of the defense that the complaint would be supported exclusively in the Cid denunciation. “What is here are several documents, videos, materials that support what was presented by the accusation,” he said. About January 8, he said that “it is no use saying that the person was not (in the acts of that day) if he participated in a series of acts that culminated” in them.

Analysis in two steps: the 1st day

The first day of judgment was divided between one morning and another afternoon session.

In the morning, the lawyers of eight accused presented their defensescontesting the accusations and claiming various nullities in the process.

In the afternoon, the ministers rejected all preliminaries raised by the defenseswho questioned from the legality of the evidence to the impartiality of the judges.

• Validada Mauro Cid

One of the central points of the case is Mauro Cid’s award-winning denunciation, former Jair Bolsonaro orders. Cid’s collaboration with the Federal Police was crucial to the investigation, and he provided details on the elaboration of a draft decree aimed at creating a “state of defense” to reverse the result of the 2022 elections.

However, the defendants of the accused questioned the legality of this denunciation, claiming that Cid would have been pressured by the Federal Police and that his collaboration should not be considered legitimate.

Minister Alexandre de Moraes, rapporteur of the case, refuted these allegations, noting that Cid made his collaboration voluntarily and without irregularities. The minister also stressed that Cid’s denunciation is only one of the evidence of the complaint, which is also supported by other documents and evidence that confirm the coup plot.

• SUSPECTIONS OF MORAES, DINO AND ZANIN AWAY

The lawyers of the accused also asked the suspicion of ministers Alexandre de Moraes, Flávio Dino and Cristiano Zaninalleging partiality. These requests were rejected by the STF plenary, which considered that the controversies about the impartiality of the ministers had already been analyzed and overcome in previous sessions.

• STF reaffirmed competence to analyze the case

In addition, the defenses questioned the STF competence to process and judge the casearguing that the accused no longer have forum for a prerogative of function, which should transfer the trial to the first instance. The rapporteur, Alexandre de Moraes, recalled that the STF reaffirmed its competence to judge all events related to events of January 8, 2023having treated more than 1,400 actions related to those facts.

• First Class denied judgment by the STF plenary

Defense lawyers also asked the judgment was carried out at the STF plenarynot in the first class, since the former president is a political figure of great relevance. However, Minister Luiz Fux was the only one to vote in favor of the transfer to the plenary, but his position was won. The Supreme Court’s Internal Regulations determine that, since 2023, criminal actions are judged in the classes to unburden the plenary and make it available for decisions on constitutional issues.

Day 2: Ministers make Bolsonaro and allies defendants unanimously

With this the first stage of the trial, and now, with the procedural issues resolved, the Court continued with the analysis of the evidence presented by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR). Unanimously, the five minister of the first class accepted the complaint and made the eight involved, including Bolsonaro, defendants.

What Bolsonaro said after becoming a defendant

• On social networks

While the Federal Supreme Court was a majority to uphold the complaint against Jair Bolsonaro, the former president spoke out on social networks, criticizing the progress of the trial.

“Judging by what we read in the press, we are facing a date, target and results defined beforehand. Something that would be a procedural theater disguised as justice-not a criminal process, but a power project that aims to interfere with the country’s political and electoral dynamics,” Bolsonaro wrote on his X (former Twitter) profile.

• Speaks to the press in Congress

Shortly after the session was closed, Bolsonaro, now defendant, spoke to journalists in front of Congress. Jair Bolsonaro countered accusations of attempted coup and continued his defense on events on January 8, 2023. In his demonstrations, the former president reiterated that the accusations are “Very serious and unfounded”.

Bolsonaro also stated that during the government transition process, asked the protesters who were camped to be demobilizedbut that your request was not fulfilled. The former president pointed out that he always sought to act within the limits of legality and that, after his defeat in the elections, he took all the necessary measures to ensure the peaceful transition of power.

“Continuous act, We started the transition. A few days after this pronouncement, Augusto Heleno was beginning to pass the government. I made a pronouncement for the campers to demobilize. They broke this request from me, ”explained the former president. He also stressed that His intentions were never to create chaos in the countrybut to maintain order during the transition process.

Regarding the coup d’état, Bolsonaro reiterated that There was no intention to start a blowstating that the accusations make no sense. “The blow has a conspiracy with the press, the parliament, the judiciary, sectors of the economy, the armed forces, entrepreneurs, farmers. Then you start to manage a hypothetical blow. None there was,” he said.

Bolsonaro also criticized Alexandre de Moraes’s performance, who, according to him, has created a distorted narrative about what happened, stating that the minister tried to justify his interpretation of a blow by associating the event from January 8 with a premeditated theory that he would begin to gestate since July 2021.

What’s up ahead?

Now that the complaint has been accepted by the Supreme Court, the process will go to the instructional phase, where more tests will be analyzed, and the parties may submit their final allegations. The defense of Bolsonaro and the other defendants may contest the evidence and question the arguments presented by the Attorney General’s Office.

If the defendants are convicted, they may appeal the decision, which may prolong the case. The expectation is that the Final judgment will happen until the end of 2025in order not to interfere with the 2026 elections. If convicted, the penalties can add up to 43 years in prison, but the execution of the penalty will only occur when all appeals are tried.