Next week, there is the beginning of the trial of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and seven other defendants of the so-called “core 1” of the coup plot.
The first session will take place on September 2, conducted by the first class of the Supreme Court. The sessions were scheduled for five days, including morning and afternoon shifts – in total ministers’ opinion can exceed 27 hours long.
were indicted by the PF (Federal Police) in November 2024.
Later, in February 2025, the PGR (Attorney General of the Republic) for attempted coup, criminal organization, violent abolition of the democratic state and other crimes.
In March 2025, o, starting the criminal action. Now the judicial phase is moving towards the conclusion with: until September 12, the ministers will decide whether the accused will be convicted or acquitted.
Understand the rite of each phase
Indictment
To be indictedthe individual does not become defendant immediately, but becomes the main target of investigations, against which there are evidence of authorship and materiality of crime. This act, called indictment, is exclusive to the police authority: it is the one who formalizes the indictment.
“The first phase is for the police investigation, a police investigation conducted by the police chief, where he gather evidence. And within this investigation, when he understands that a certain person committed a crime, he has the minimum evidence to do this, he does the indictment,” explains the constitutional law expert Rubens Glezer.
Complaint
After completing the investigation, the police authority sends the final report to the prosecutor, which evaluates if there are sufficient evidence. The prosecutor or prosecutor may then decide to offer complaint, request new steps or request the filing of the investigation.
The accused can, therefore, be called the denunciated If there is a complaint of the MP.
“The complaint is a formal document, whereby the prosecutor is officializing the criminal accusation against the accused,” explains criminal law expert Guilherme Suguimori.
He also points out that “the complaint is the most important document of the process” and that the individual “cannot be convicted of something that is not in the complaint, the judge cannot sentence him for something that is not in the complaint. The complaint delimits the accusation, and in so doing, delimits all criminal action.”
The report of the complaint is then sent to the competent court, which will decide to receive or rejection.
Criminal action
The eventual receipt of the complaint by the judge marks the passage of the investigation phase for the beginning of the criminal action, with the accused becoming defendant.
According to Rubens Glezer, “the judiciary takes a first exam to speak if there is a minimum of proof that that person is involved in these acts are criminal. If so, the judiciary accepts the complaint. When he accepts the complaint, the criminal action begins. That person who was indicted and became denounced, is now defendant or defendant.”
The defendant will be responsible for judicially with constitutional guarantees guaranteed, especially the right to broad defense and contradictory.
“And then begins the process where the person will be able to go and perform their defense acts, produce their own evidence, contest, indicate nullities in the investigation, weaknesses in arguing the prosecution and so on,” adds Glezer.
Suguimori exposes that criminal action “is the procedure, with a rite and pre -established rules, whereby someone is accused of a crime and exercises his right to defend himself.”
“During this procedure, all evidence is produced under a contradictory system, with active participation of prosecution and defense. In the end, prosecution and defense manifest themselves and the judge decides whether there was a crime, which crime, who are culprits and what is the penalty.”
Wide
Those who become defendants have the right to broad defense in a criminal action, and may use all available legal means and resources to defend themselves from an accusation, ensuring the right to a technical defense (exercised by a lawyer) and self-defense (such as the accused’s personal presentation), guaranteed by the Federal Constitution.
“The investigated, still during the investigation, is entitled to broad defense, because the investigation is an administrative procedure, and the Constitution guarantees the broad defense in administrative proceedings,” explains Suguimori.
According to the Criminal Law expert, the accused has the right to be full of the accusation before manifesting himself, besides speaking last in the process and being technically defended by a lawyer.
“In the investigation, the person does not even have a lawyer. She can be investigated, go there and talk about her version alone with the police, and let the investigation follow. He has a lawyer during the investigation is her option,” he says.
“In criminal proceedings, this is not an option. The accused needs to have a technical defense. If he refuses to present one or cannot pay one, he will be pointed out a public defender or a dative defender. No act of the process can occur without the participation of the defense,” he concludes.
