Torres asks STF Acoreation with Freire Gomes and expertise on scammer

The defense of former Justice Minister Anderson Torres filed a request to the Federal Supreme Court (STF) on Monday to carry out an army commander, General Marco Antonio Freire Gomes, in the action that investigates the attempted coup. In this type of judicial procedure, those who gave conflicting versions face the facts. Freire Gomes stated that Torres attended meetings with coup content, which the former minister denies.

The lawyers maintain that there are relevant contradictions between the testimonies given by Torres and the General about the alleged meetings involving then -President Jair Bolsonaro, central theme of the interrogation phase held last week.

As the Estadão column anticipated, the strategy of requesting the caress was already being considered by the defense, given what they evaluate as conflicting versions.

In 2024, Freire Gomes told the Federal Police that Torres provided “legal support” to Bolsonaro during meetings that discussed scammer acts. At the time, the general also stated that the coup draft was discussed with Bolsonaro and the military commanders was the same seized by the PF at the home of Torres. The defense of the former minister disputes this version.

However, in testimony to the Supreme Court last month, this time as a witness of prosecution, the general attenuated his previous statements and said he was not sure if the draft seized at Torres’s house was the same discussed at meetings with the commanders.

Asked by the defense about how many times Torres participated in these meetings, Freire Gomes answered only: “Few”, without detailing. The lawyers also criticized the fact that the general figured in the process as a witness, not as investigated.

This divergence between the initial version, which pointed to Torres as responsible for giving legal support, and the later, in which the General relativized his statement, motivated the defense to ask for the caress.

If the Supreme Court does not authorize direct confrontation, the lawyers ask Freire Gomes to be summoned to a new individual testimony in order to clarify the points they consider contradictory or poorly explained.

In an attempt to reinforce the thesis that Torres had no active participation in the coup articulations, the defense also requested that the STF to officially open Google to identify the person responsible for inserting the draft defense decree found at the former minister’s house. Lawyers argue that similar content documents have been publicly circulated on the Internet since December 2022, without the authorities identified the authors.

Another request submitted was a technical expertise to compare the content of the draft seized with other documents attached to the process. The goal is to demonstrate that the material found with towers is not likely to the other undemocratic texts that underlie the accusation.

The defense also requested the holding of audiovisual expertise on the participation of Torres in the live in July 2021, alongside Bolsonaro-episode quoted in the complaint of the Attorney General’s Office and questioned by Minister Alexandre de Moraes during the interrogation. In the request, lawyers say the intention is to demonstrate that the then minister only read technical recommendations prepared by Federal Police experts, dismissing the accusation that he would have propagated misinformation.

Requests were made in the context of the complementary process phase of the process, opened last week after the closing of the defendant interrogation stage. The requests will now be analyzed by the rapporteur of the case, Minister Alexandre de Moraes.