Governor’s allies try to create a military court of Justice in the proposal that is defended by the governor of Rio de Janeiro.
The State Military Justice is responsible for judging cases involving military police and firefighters. Currently, only São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul have state military courts.
“All proposals that have as its principle to speed up the fight against crime are important for the Brazilian justice framework,” Castro management said in a statement.
Military Justice is structured in two instances, the first constituted by military audits and the second by the Military Courts (in the case of states that have the body) or Common Courts.
According to the CNJ (National Council of Justice), each state has the responsibility to create the State Military Justice itself through the Court of Justice initiative. The creation of a court is only possible if the State has effective exceeding 20,000 members of the military forces – Rio has 43,000 military police and over 20,000 firefighters.
In February, state deputy Rodrigo Amorim (União Brasil) proposed the implementation of the Rio de Janeiro Military Court of Military Justice through an imposing individual amendment of R $ 50 thousand.
The Undersecretary of Special Projects replied that the amendment was considered incompatible for execution, “in view of the inconsistency between the proposed object, the amount intended and the institutional purpose of the executing unit”.
People involved in the matter state that, despite the veto given in April by the secretary, Castro is personally favorable to the creation of the Court and maintains conversations in progress to implement the agency through PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution).
The creation of the Court, however, depends on the judiciary and, in the case of Rio de Janeiro, the idea finds caveats.
Also defended by the president of Alerj (Legislative Assembly of the State of Rio de Janeiro), state deputy Rodrigo Bacellar (União Brasil), the matter is matured in the government’s core, according to reports, and can be debated in the house in this second semester. Another front plans to try to convince members of the TJ-RJ (Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice).
The proposal is among the Castro waves to the police category, which also includes the announcement of a new PM contest in 2026, with 2,000 vacancies. The governor aims Senate candidacy in the next election.
“Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul are good examples to be shared to the country and already have a similar court,” the Fluminense government said in a statement.
In each of the three states, the Military Court is made up of seven magistrates, four of them military (colonels) and three civilians.
The most demanded matters to the state military courts in 2023, according to the CNJ, were murder, crimes against functional duty, falsehood and crimes against honor.
Other CNJ data show that the average time of pending cases in the state military court was 1 year and 3 months in 2023, averaging 4 years and 5 months in state courts (calculation includes cases that do not involve military).
The creation of the State Military Court had already been the subject of a bill in Alerj in 2019, authored by state deputy Bruno Dauaire (Union Brazil), but the proposal did not advance.
In 2021, Alerj gathered police, firefighters and deputies in a working group that studied the creation of the court. The group visited the TJMSP (São Paulo Military Court of Justice) and the Corregedoria of PM Paulista.
Today Secretary of Housing of the Government, Bruno Dauaire argued in the bill that there is slow in the judgment of processes involving police in Rio and that military cases should receive specialized treatment.
One of the opposite arguments at the time was the expense of implementing the scenario of fiscal crisis.
The State Military Justice Courts had a expense of R $ 235 million in 2023, 91% in personnel spending.
The Payroll of the TJMMG (Minas Gerais Military Court of Justice) cost R $ 11 million in July, with 282 members, including magistrates, servants and collaborators. The Military Police of Minas Gerais has a staff similar to that of Rio de Janeiro – a priced of 44,000 members.
In the last 12 months, cases of acquittal of military police have generated protests from family members and human rights entities.
On the 5th, the Military Justice audit acquitted, by 4 votes to 1, the PMs accused of defrauding the scene of the murder of model Kathlen Romeo in the Lins complex in June 2021. Kathlen was pregnant when he was shot.
In November last year, the Jury Court acquitted the PM appointed as the author of the shot that killed the girl Agatha Félix, 8, in September 2019 at the German Complex. The Public Prosecution Service filed an appeal.