The only former head of the defendants’ bank in the trial of the coup plot, the former Navy commander will have to counter testimonials from his peers in the Air Force and the Army to try to convince the Supreme Court ministers of their innocence.
The Admiral’s defense points to the error of the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) and says that elements cited in the accusation about the coincidence.
An example of casualty, according to the defense, was the same day as the flag of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL). Garnier’s lawyers say the parade has been planned before.
Coincidence would also be, according to the admiral, the compliments he received from coup plans supporters while the army and aeronautics chiefs suffered virtual attacks.
Already his demonstration of loyalty to Bolsonaro during was misunderstood, says Garnier. He claims that it was not support for democratic rupture, as witnesses indicated, because he.
The defense also claims PGR error about the date this would have occurred.
The ministers of the First Class of (Supreme Federal Court) begin to analyze the complaint on September 2.
See what weighs against Admiral, according to the complaint of PGR.
Coup meeting
Garnier is accused of supporting Bolsonaro’s scammer plans in meetings at the Dawn Palace. The prosecution supports the testimonies of former military commanders Baptista Júnior (Aeronautics) and Freire Gomes (Army).
In testimony, Baptista Júnior stated: “This posture was well known to the three of us: the minister [da Defesa] Paulo Sérgio, Me and Freire Gomes. And in one of these meetings… I have a very passive view of Admiral Garnier. (…) In one of these, it reached the point that he said that the navy troops would be available to the president. “
Freire Gomes said he and the head of the Air Force opposed Bolsonaro. “Admiral Garnier, he took this posture of staying with the president,” he said.
“Although General Freire Gomes and Lieutenant Baptist Junior Baptist were positioned against the coup d’état conceived by the criminal organization, there is no doubt that Squadron Admiral Almir Garnier Santos joined,” says PGR.
Garnier’s defense states that the prosecutor’s play has a mistake that implies the annulment of the prosecution against the former navy chief. According to lawyer Demosthenes Torres, initially, the complaint described that the military would have positioned himself in favor of the coup at meetings on December 7 and 14, 2022.
However, after reports that the support was vocalized at another meeting, on an unknown date, the Admiral’s defense argues that there was a formal error of the Attorney General.
According to the lawyer, the admiral was silent in both meetings. “There is no material element that indicates the consent of Almir Garnier to some coup plan,” he adds.
“This excerpt regarding a meeting not mentioned in the complaint was used to assign Almir Garnier an active conduct in meetings in which he made no statement,” he says.
‘Praises Garnier’
For the PGR, one of the evidence that Garnier gave moral and material support to scammer plans are messages exchanged among other defendants who showed support to the then head of the Navy.
Some of these messages were sent by former Minister Walter Braga Netto-reserve army general and vice-presidential candidate on the plate headed by Bolsonaro.
“Sit the stick in the Junior Baptist. People suffering, arbitrariness being made and he closed in the stewardship. Negotiating favors. Treator of the Fatherland. From then on. Harves his life and family (…) praises Garnier and fucks BJ,” Braga Netto wrote to an interlocutor.
For the PGR, it is no coincidence that Garnier began to be celebrated in the scammer circles, while the other heads of the Armed Forces were attacked.
Lawyer Demosthenes Torres says that messages cannot be considered as evidence because they were exchanged for “third parties who have not witnessed any concrete fact.”
“All communications refer to rumors, mere ‘I heard’, therefore lacking probative value to support the accusatory hypothesis,” he says.
Armored on the Esplanade
According to Gonet, Garnier was already evicing military support to Bolsonaro before 2022. On August 10, 2021, the Navy held a military parade in the Esplanade of Ministries to deliver an invitation to the former president to participate in Operation Formosa, a military exercise in a city near Brasilia.
On the same day, the House would vote for the printed vote PEC, one of Bolsonaro’s main demands after the start of attacks on the electronic ballot boxes.
“The investigations showed that the parade had been planned behind the scenes of Jair Bolsonaro’s government to intimidate parliament, compelled him to vote in favor of that constitutional amendment,” says PGR.
In a statement to the Supreme, Garnier said the parade was organized more than a month in advance. “It was a coincidence,” he said.
