STF delivers two coup action army officers; Know who they are

The first class of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) rejected on Tuesday, 20, the complaint against two Army officers by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) of having participated in an attempted coup: Reserve Colonel Cleverson Ney Magalhães and General Nilton Diniz Rodrigues.

The rapporteur of the case, Alexandre de Moraes, considered that there was no minimum evidence that justifies the opening of a criminal case against both, reported because they are part of the “core of coercive actions” of the coup plot. The other ten accused became defendants.

Cleverson is a colonel of the Army Reserve, with training in the special forces, the so -called “black kids”. He was advisor to Estevam Theóphilo, former chief of the Army Land Operations Command (Coter)-which became a defendant on Tuesday.

The colonel’s defense stated that he participated in a “meeting between friends” in November 2022, with about 15 people, and that the meeting was not a political nature.

In addition, according to the lawyer, Cleverson would only have taken “knowledge” on the matter, but did not support or ancient the coup plot.

Nilton is currently army general. At the end of 2022, he was a direct assistant to the Force Commander, Marco Antonio Freire Gomes. It also has a special formation, that is, it is a black kid. The general’s defense stated that he was abroad for most of the time involved the articulations of the coup plan, and that his name was quoted only twice in the denunciation of more than 300 pages.

The general is the brother of anthropologist Débora Diniz, from the Federal University of Brasilia (UnB), known as opposed to former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL). In the dissertation he defended at the Army Staff Command School in 2013, he gave a special thanks to his sister.

“They were eventually denounced for references to their names and because one was directly advisor to General Theóphilo and another advised General Freire Gomes, but there is no proven imputation,” said Moraes.

The decision was unanimous. In addition to Moraes, the ministers Flávio Dino, Luiz Fux, Cármen Lúcia and Cristiano Zanin voted to make defendants the other ten accused.