Minister Alexandre de Moraes of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) voted on Friday, 20, for the conviction of the man who would have stolen a soccer ball signed by player Neymar Jr during the undemocratic acts of 8 January. The magistrate upheld the complaint against Nelson Ribeiro Fonseca Júnior, condemning him to 17 years in prison.
According to the complaint of the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), the defendant would have stolen the ball after invading the Chamber of Deputies Museum. In his statement, Nelson said he found the ball to the ground outside the protective container. The defendant said “to have taken over the object to protect him and return it later, because at that time the security authorities prevented the restitution.”
The ball, in fact, was returned to the Military Police of Sorocaba (SP), however, only 20 days after the invasion of 8 January. At the time, the defendant assumed that he withdrew the museum item.
In his vote, Moraes states that “the return of the piece only twenty days after events disregard this justification (of protection of the item) and reinforces the intent in the conduct, as, at most, of later repentance.”
In the minister’s view, “the late return and the absence of any record of immediate spontaneous delivery remove the allegation of protection of the object and reveal the intentional possession.”
Under the defendant, the accusations of theft crimes qualified for the destruction and break of the obstacle, deterioration of listed heritage, armed criminal association, attempted violent abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law, coup, damage qualified by violence and serious threat, with the use of flammable substance
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The defense calls for the nullity of the criminal action, alleging violation of the principle of broad defense and “absence of elements that individualize the conduct of the accused”. If convicted, Nelson must comply with 15 years and six months in closed regime, in addition to paying compensation for collective moral damages of R $ 30 million, which must be divided in solidarity by the convicts.
The criminal action continues with an open virtual vote in the plenary of the first class of the Supreme Court until next Monday, 30. They should still vote the ministers Flávio Dino, Cármen Lúcia, Luiz Fux and Cristiano Zanin.
