The video of the testimony of the former Army Commander Marco Antonio Freire Gomes shows the moment when considering that he presented a different version to the (Supreme Court) about the statements given to the Federal Police in the investigation into the 2022 coup plot.
The recording was made available by the Supreme Court on Tuesday (3), one day after the court finished the testimony of the prosecution and defense.
Moraes interrupted the testimony after the general was not assertive in reporting on the reaction of former Navy commander Almir Garnier Santos, defendant in the process, to the scammer plans presented by Bolsonaro.
“Admiral Garnier took his posture, I think he was also surprised, and manifested. I did not interpret it as any kind of collusion,” said Freire Gomes.
The Supreme Minister said the General’s version in court was different from the version presented to the Federal Police. “I will give the witness a chance to tell the truth. He lied to the police, has to say he lied to the police,” he said.
The investigation of and the complaint of the (Attorney General’s Office) presented in recent months Freire Gomes as an essential character for scammer plans not going ahead. In the testimony, however, he gave a milder version than the one played by the investigators.
He said he was summoned by Bolsonaro to attend a meeting at the Dawn Palace on December 7, 2022. It was at this meeting that the former president presented to the military chiefs for the first time the draft coup decree.
According to Freire Gomes, the text presented a series of considers as legal grounds for the coup and suggested the use of the Armed Forces in measures such as GLO (Guarantee of Law and Order), State of Defense or State of Siege after the electoral result.
The objective would be to intervene in the TSE (Superior Electoral Court), then under the command of Moraes, to nullify the outcome of the elections and avoid the possession of Lula (PT), which had just been elected. Freire Gomes said this first version of the document did not cause astonishment in military chiefs.
“He presented these considerations, all of them based on legal aspects, within the Constitution. It did not cause us kind. As it was still going to be studied and deepened, we awaited another manifestation of the President,” he said.
The general said he met with Bolsonaro on other occasions at the end of 2022. In one of these meetings the subject was resumed. Freire Gomes said it was at this time that he expressed contrary to a possible democratic rupture.
“From what I remember, he just commented on the study [para o golpe]. The Junior Baptist Brigadier [ex-chefe da Aeronáutica] He said he would not do anything and I informed the president quite cordially that the measures he wanted to take should consider various aspects: international and national support, congress, the legal part. “
