The minister of the (Supreme Federal Court) gave the Army a deadline of 48 hours to explain why the soldiers arrested in the investigation for an attempted coup d’état are receiving daily visits from family members and lawyers, contradicting the military’s own regulations on military actions. special prisons.
The minister demanded explanations on December 24th. The decision was taken after the Army presented to the STF the list of visits received by officers who are detained at the Planalto Military Command, in .
The charge was also forwarded to the Eastern Military Command, the area responsible for the Command of the 1st Army Division, in Rio de Janeiro, where Braga Netto, former minister of the Civil House of (PL) and reserve general, is detained.
The report sent to the STF shows daily visits between the 6th and 19th of December received by the reserve general, Mario Fernandes, and lieutenant colonels Rodrigo Bezerra Azevedo and Helio Ferreira Lima.
The list shows that visits have been practically daily. The practice goes against the Planalto Military Command’s own regulations, which provide for visits on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, with exceptional cases being authorized by the area commander.
Lawyers can make visits from Monday to Friday during business hours. Visits must be scheduled in advance, and the rules also provide that “in exceptional cases” the area command may authorize visits on other days and times. The names of the family members and lawyers who carried out the visits were authorized by Moraes.
In relation to Braga Netto, the procedure regarding his arrest at the STF is under secrecy. Even so, the minister demanded explanations from General Eduardo Tavares Martins, commander of the 1st Army Division, where he has been detained since December 14th.
The letters for the two commands were prepared on December 24th. The procedural progress states that the documents were only issued this Thursday (26). The 48-hour period begins only after receipt of the document by commanders.
UOL contacted the Army Communication Center, but has not yet received a response.
“With regard to visiting days: visits are carried out on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, by prior appointment and, exceptionally, on other days as long as authorized by this Command, without ever exceeding 3 (three) days of weekly visits, scheduled by the prisoner”, says an excerpt from the explanation sent by General Ricardo Piai Carmona, commander of the Planalto Military Command, to Minister Alexandre de Mores about the visits to the soldiers detained there.
In the decision of December 24th, Minister Alexandre de Moraes determines:
“Commit to the Commander of the 1st Army Division, General Eduardo Tavares Martins, the Commander of the Military Command of Planalto, General of Division Ricardo Piai Carmona, and the Military Commander of the East, General of the Army Kleber Nunes de Vasconcellos to, within the deadline of 48 (forty-eight) hours, clarify the violation of the visiting regulations, with authorization for daily visits to the Attorney General’s Office.”
Generals arrested
Braga Netto was arrested for trying to hinder investigations into a coup plot to keep Bolsonaro in power. He was the first four-star general arrested preventively by the courts in the country. The Federal Police point out, based on Mauro Cid’s plea bargain and other elements found in the investigation, that Braga Netto would have tried to obtain information about the plea bargain of Bolsonaro’s former aide-de-camp.
Another reserve general arrested was Mario Fernandes. PF investigations indicate that he was the most radical among the Bolsonarist military and that he would have worked both to convince his superiors about the coup and in dialogue with protesters who were camped in front of the general headquarters after the 2022 election. It was in an HD It is clear that the PF found the Punhal Verde e Amarelo plan, which planned to kill President Lula, Vice Geraldo Alckmin and even Minister Alexandre de Moraes, from the STF.
Furthermore, the two have already been indicted by the PF for attempted coup d’état, violent abolition of the democratic rule of law and criminal organization. It is now up to the Attorney General’s Office to analyze all the investigation material to decide whether to file charges against them.
Braga Netto is suspected of coordinating the execution of the coup plot. He would have helped coordinate an attempted coup to keep Bolsonaro in power. In a plea bargain, Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro’s former aide-de-camp, said that Braga Netto received money to carry out a plan that planned to kill Lula, Alckmin and Moraes.
Furthermore, it was after a meeting at Braga Netto’s residence, on November 12, 2023, that the military put the plan into practice and even went close to Moraes’ residence, in Brasília. Investigation shows that the coup did not go ahead due to a lack of support from the Army Command. Black military kids approached the plan when one of them was already close to the STF minister’s house.
