The minister of the (Supreme Federal Court) stated this Tuesday (21) that he will disagree with the trial of the defendants, which brings together seven defendants accused of spreading false news about electronic voting machines and attacking leaders opposed to the 2022 coup d’état attempt.
According to the minister, considering coup plans is not enough to deserve criminal sanctions if the planning has not been carried out. “Plots, even if followed by fundraising more favorable to their implementation, do not go beyond the preparatory field”, he said.
Fux has not yet concluded the vote, but stated that he would disagree and reaffirmed the arguments given during the trial of the central core of the plot, on September 10th.
Moraes and voted this Tuesday to convict the defendants. The class president will also have to vote.
“Preparatory acts consisting of the achievement of skillful means for the future criminal enterprise do not attract criminal sanctions. Nelson Hungary’s classic doctrine already taught that manifestations of criminal ideas are imputable when they do not actually produce harm”, said Fux.
According to him, the seriousness of the actions at trial must also be analyzed. “The criminal law punishes conduct deliberately aimed at leading the nation towards a hybrid or pure authoritarian regime. Therefore, the broader interpretation of this criminal type to encompass irresignation with the criminal result must be rejected,” he stated.
He once again said that forms of political demonstration do not constitute crimes, including camps, banners and gatherings that constitute “the sincere desire to participate in the government, even when it includes peaceful irresignation against the Powers of the Republic.”
The defendants in the case are (major expelled from the Army), (army reserve major), (army sergeant), (army lieutenant colonel), (army colonel), (federal police officer) and (president of Instituto Voto Legal).
Moraes argues that the defendants be convicted of the crimes of coup d’état, attempted abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law, criminal organization, qualified damage to public property and deterioration of listed property.
Moraes’ vote was shorter than in the central nucleus. He justified reading a summary by the fact that the materiality of the crimes had already been proven with the conviction of the central nucleus of the coup plot, and it was only necessary to analyze the authorship of the defendants.
According to the minister, the defendants involved in the disinformation core were involved in five of the coup plots — focusing on spreading false information about the electoral process before and after the elections.
“Several enforcement actions proved the activity of this criminal organization. This is important because the conduct attributed to the co-defendants falls into exactly some of these 13 enforcement moments of the criminal organization,” he said.
Last week, the Attorney General of the Republic, , . According to him, the group acted in an “information war” to discredit the electronic voting system and weaken democratic institutions, creating the environment that culminated in the attacks on January 8, 2023.
The defenses, in turn, contest the characterization of a criminal organization. They argue that the defendants did not know each other, that there was no division of tasks between them and that there is no evidence of participation in the actions that led to the acts of January 8th. Lawyers also maintain that sharing links or messages in private conversations cannot be classified as a crime.
The group is the second to be tried in the set of criminal actions in the coup plot. The series of trials began in September, with the central nucleus, when the court plenary sentenced the former president () to 27 years and 3 months in prison.
