The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) delivered on Monday, 14, the final allegations in the criminal action against the “crucial core” of the coup attempt. The opinion signed by Paulo Gonet, including former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), who was, according to the report, the “main articulator, greatest beneficiary and author of the most serious executory acts aimed at breaking the democratic rule of law”.
In addition, the penalties of crimes imputed to Bolsonaro can reach 43 years in prison, considering the maximum penalties and possible aggravating factors of each crime. Although he requested the former president’s conviction, the Attorney’s Office did not request the immediate arrest of Bolsonaro.
Criminal law, however, provides situations in which a defendant may be arrested preventively. If the PGR evaluates that Bolsonaro should be arrested preventively, the request must be submitted to the rapporteur of the case, Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Supreme Court (STF), to whom the decree or not of pre -trial detention.
If there is no request for pre -trial detention, Bolsonaro and the other defendants of the case will be tried and, in case of conviction, will only be arrested after the final judgment, ie, when there is an exhaustion of all possible appeals.
According to the Code of Criminal Procedure, for unenforceable crimes, pre -trial detention can be decreed to “ensure the application of criminal law”. This is what happens, for example, when there is a risk of escape from the investigated, denounced or defendant. The request for arrest must be made by either the prosecutor or by the police, and must be decreed by a judge.
Since February 2024, when he was the target of Federal Police Tempus Veritatis Operation, Bolsonaro has been with his passport withheld. Since then, the former president has tried to recover him on four occasions. All requests made by their defense to return the document were denied by Moraes.
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Images released by the American newspaper The New York Times revealed that, four days after the PF operation, Bolsonaro spent two nights staying at the Hungary embassy in Brazil in the federal capital. The former president’s stay took place between February 12 and 14. The physical space of an embassy is considered inviolable territory of the foreign country. At that time, if the court issued a warrant of pre -trial detention against Bolsonaro, the decision could not be fulfilled. Even after the report, the PGR did not order Bolsonaro’s preventive arrest.
Preventive arrest can also be decreed when there is obstruction of justice. This is the reason that underlies the arrest of Walter Braga Netto, also a defendant of the “crucial core” of the action of the coup.
According to the Federal Police, the general and former minister of Bolsonaro tried to obtain from Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid details about the demarches, and aligned with other investigated versions about the facts determined by the process. The arrest request was accepted by Moraes on December 14, 2024.
