The decision of the House of Representatives to suspend the lawsuit of Federal Deputy Alexandre Ramagem (PL-RJ) must have restricted reach and will not benefit former President Jair Bolsonaro in the trial of the coup attempt, three sources of the Supreme Court (STF) told Reuters on Thursday.
The decision of the deputies about the parliamentary colleague is another chapter in the clash between the Legislature and the Judiciary, as Bolsonaro’s allies seek to articulate the approval of an amnesty proposal to convicted of the attacks of January 8 to the headquarters of the three powers.
The day before, the House approved a proposal to lock the progress of the criminal action against branch by a significant score of 315 votes, superior even to the plenary voting quorum to approve a constitutional amendment of 308 votes.
The main clash point is that the final wording of the proposal approved by the deputies in plenary provides for the sustainment of the “progress of the criminal action contained in Petition 12.100, underway in the STF, in relation to all imputed crimes”. That is, it does not make it clear if it would only be worth the branch, and what extension, including the other seven defendants, including Bolsonaro.
In the evaluation of the three sources heard by Reuters, however, the proposal chancelled by parliamentarians only contemplates the crimes of which branch is accused after the diploma as a federal deputy and, in no way, could lock the entire criminal action and suspend the course of the process against the former president.
According to one of the sources, the vote of the House will have “zero impact” for Bolsonaro. The expectation, according to the source, is that the Chamber report the STF of the decision, but the Court will only suspend the process of the branching part of the crimes after his diplomation as deputy in December 2022.
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A second source commented that in April, Minister Cristiano Zanin had already sent a letter to the mayor, Hugo Motta (Republicans-PB), pointing out that the house could only suspend the analysis of the branch process in relation to qualified damage crimes and deterioration of the overturned assets.
Thus, the federal deputy would continue to be responsible for the crimes of violent abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law, attempted coup d’état and criminal organization.
A third source of the Supreme Court said that Article 53 of the Constitution, referring to parliamentary immunity, is very clear about the effect of sustaining the progress of criminal action for crimes after diplomation. This source minimized the dispute between the powers and said that the current political environment, where there are acts in amnesty defense, ends up providing this kind of debate.
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“But it makes no sense to benefit everyone in criminal proceedings,” the source said, for whom this pressure ends up because Bolsonaro is still ineligible and the 2026 elections are approaching, and he responds to a process with “consistent accusations.”
Analysis
In the late afternoon, STF Minister Alexandre de Moraes, rapporteur of the case involving branch, Bolsonaro and other defendants, decided to ask the president of the first class of the court, Cristiano Zanin, who summons an extraordinary virtual session of the collegiate to analyze the decision of the Chamber to suspend the criminal action of the coup to assess the scope of the decision of the House.
Moraes stressed in the order that the criminal action will follow its processing normally until the decision of the first class.
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Early in the evening, Zanin decided to abide by Moraes’s request, marking the beginning of the virtual session for Friday morning, lasting until next Tuesday.
During an act in defense of amnesty on Wednesday, with the presence of Bolsonaro a few days after recovering from a sixth intestinal clearance surgery, the former president’s allies charged the presence of the deputies to vote on the proposal on branch.
Sought, the deputy’s advisory did not respond immediately at the request for comment.
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The network and PDT entered this Thursday with an action in the Supreme Court to declare the unconstitutionality of the Chamber’s decision on branch. PSOL had announced the day before that it should also resort to the Supreme.
Deputies of expression such as Arthur Lira (PP-AL), former president of the House, Whale Rossi (SP), President of MDB, Marcos Pereira (SP), President of Republicans, and Juscelino Filho (União-MA), who until recently was Minister of the Lula administration, voted in favor of branch.
A source from the House that accompanied the negotiations for the proposal vote, however, said there is a lot of scene play and the audience in this vote. There were those who vote to make an indirect nod to Bolsonaro and at the same time beasting the Lula administration, as his management has had difficulty support in Congress, he said.
