The defense of the former president () told (Supreme Federal Court) on Thursday (6) that the court did not provide lawyers to access all evidence obtained by the investigation of the 2022 coup plot.
The lawyers delivered, on the last day of the deadline, his prior defense in the complaint presented by the PGR (Attorney General’s Office) in which he is accused of attempted coup.
According to PGR, the former president was the leader of a criminal organization who articulated a coup in 2022 after losing the presidential election to Lula (PT).
The response to the prosecution is preliminary and does not deepen the merits of crimes attributed to the former president. In the procedure, lawyers argue that the complaint is not received by the Supreme – and thus Bolsonaro does not even become a defendant.
She points out that 38 search and seizure warrants were served during investigations, but only the mirroring of seven cell phones analyzed by the Federal Police was provided.
“That is, complete conversations, without selections or any limitation, are evidence available only to the Federal Prosecutor, but which, for the defense, have become inaccessible evidence, along with so many others,” he says.
The team of lawyers led by Celso Vilardi also states that the investigations were divided into several petitions in the Supreme, which together add up to more than 81,000 pages.
The defense says that the “gigantic” amount of documents was presented “disorganized” by the complaint against the former president to prevent the accusations from being rebutted within 15 days.
“It is clear that it is clear to confuse to prevent the understanding of the prosecution and, as a consequence, the exercise of the defense. Without the complaint brings clear or minimally organized indications and mentions to the elements of the case-it is, without leaf numbers and no number of process-the defense is obliged to go out in real hunts for the mentioned documents,” he says.
According to the prosecution, Bolsonaro edited a coup draft, sought support from the armed forces chiefs to the conspiracy, ancoured with a plan to kill Minister Alexandre de Moraes and is one of those responsible for attacks on the headquarters on January 8, 2023.
In contrast, the lawyers claim that the complaint stacked narratives, with contradictory coup plans, and attributes to Bolsonaro the “command, science or consent” of all acts performed by the accused without presenting concrete elements.
Bolsonaro’s defense also asks the denunciation to be annulled by the Supreme. She cites omissions and contradictions in the statements of Lieutenant Colonel and points out that the employee could not, under any circumstances, gave testimony to Minister Alexandre de Moraes to be given a “last chance” to clarify the facts investigated.
“What was not possible either – and it cannot be admitted – is the testimony of collaboration by the magistrate. There is no precedent in the history of this country of a collaboration testimonial taken by a magistrate, which, we know, only occurs at judicial interrogation,” he says.
In the document sent to the Supreme, the defense says that the judgment of the PGR complaint cannot be made by the First Class of the Supreme Court, as provided for in the Court. The former president insists that the case be analyzed by the court plenary.
“It seems to be inadmissible that a trial involving the former President of the Republic does not occur in the full court. And it is not said only due to the wingspan of the case, the involvement of a former president and several former ministers of state. The need derives from the Federal Constitution and the Internal Regulations of this supreme court,” he says.
Mentioning the provision of the judge of guarantees, according to which the judge who conducts the process is not the same as that judges it, Bolsonaro’s defense asks that Minister Alexandre de Moraes leave the process.
“It is required to recognize the need to distribute the case to a new rapporteur, before receiving the complaint, so that the differences in rite, the rules of the judgment of guarantees in criminal actions are applied.”
The defense of the former president presented a list of 13 witnesses who, in the lawyers’ view, could prove Bolsonaro’s innocence.
Nominata includes the governor of Sao Paulo, Tarcísio Freitas, former ministers Ciro Nogueira, Eduardo Pazuello, Rogério Marinho and Gilson Machado and former commanders Freire Gomes (Army) and Junior Baptista (Aeronautics), among others.
Bolsonaro’s prior defense document still separates an excerpt to list Alexandre de Moraes measures considered by lawyers as illegal.
The lawyers mention that the minister filed a police inquiry against the former president, still at the head of the Planalto Palace, through criminal news sent by the (Superior Electoral Court). The right thing, according to the defense, would be to send the case to the manifestation of PGR.
They still accuse Moraes and the Federal Police to have a probative fishing against Mauro Cid after the removal of Lieutenant Colonel’s telematic secrecy in 2021. According to Bolsonaro’s defense, the initial investigation had as its object the Live carried out by the then president to attack, with false information, the electronic ballot boxes.
Moraes, however, determined that the PF prepared weekly reports about the information seized with Bolsonaro’s order assistant. The new information, outside the initial object, end up opening new investigations into the use of the presidency corporate card and fraud in vaccination cards.
“This is symptomatic and revealing that, in fact, a determined fact was not investigated, but a person,” the defense says.
Defenses
Other accused in the coup plot also sent their prior defenses to the Supreme, as they expired 15 days from the notification to the accused’s answers.
Most of them in the case, stating that the minister accumulates the role of victim and judge.
The thesis has already been after requesting the defense of former President Bolsonaro.
