The Attorney General of the Republic, , requested this Tuesday (11) the conviction of the defendants who were members of the . According to the minister, the group was responsible for the attempted coup d’état.
“The decisive contribution that [os réus] provided for the characterization of the reported crimes. Members of this nucleus aggressively pressured the Army High Command to complete the coup d’état, put public authorities in the crosshairs of lethal measures and were willing to bring together ground military forces to serve criminal purposes”, said the head of the (Attorney General’s Office).
Gonet stated that the group’s military personnel knew that the narrative of fraud in electronic voting machines was not true, but continued to spread false information to garner popular support for the democratic rupture.
“A series of dialogues collected in the investigations shows that the defendants were aware of the integrity of the electoral process,” he stated.
The statements were made by Gonet during his oral argument in the First Panel of the STF (Supreme Federal Court). This Tuesday, the collegiate began the trial of the military core of the coup plot.
The only defendant who went to the Supreme Court to watch his first day of trial, this Tuesday, was Lieutenant Colonel Rodrigo Bezerra de Azevedo. He has been imprisoned in an Army barracks in Brasília for 12 months.
Azevedo had requests for release denied by Alexandre de Moraes despite the investigation against the military man regarding his participation in the attempted assassination of the Supreme Court minister.
The soldier is a defendant in the coup plot accused of, under the code name “Brazil”, executing a plan to neutralize Moraes. The operation would have taken place in Brasília, on December 15, 2022.
The PGR was unable to find proof that Azevedo was in Brasília that day. The defense argues that the lieutenant colonel was in Goiânia (GO) on December 15th, his birthday, as presented in the process.
The group judged as of this Tuesday has as defendants (reserve colonel), (reserve general), (colonel), (lieutenant colonel), (reserve colonel), (lieutenant colonel), (lieutenant colonel), (lieutenant colonel), (reserve lieutenant colonel) and (federal police officer).
Nine of them are responsible for the crimes of armed criminal organization, attempted abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law, coup d’état, deterioration of public property and damage to listed property.
In the case of Lieutenant Colonel Ronald Ferreira de Araújo Júnior, Attorney General Paulo Gonet stated, in closing arguments, that there was not enough evidence to charge him for the five crimes.
The PGR asked that the accusation against the soldier be downgraded and that he only face charges of incitement to commit a crime. The justification is that the soldier did not participate in coup meetings, but only spread false information about fraud in the electoral process to incite the Armed Forces to break democracy.
This week, the trial should be restricted to the reading of Minister Alexandre de Moraes’ report and the oral arguments of the prosecution and defenses of the ten defendants.
Attorney General Paulo Gonet will have two hours to present the reasons for convicting the defendants for crimes against democracy. Afterwards, each defense will have one hour to demonstrate the innocence of their clients.
The trial will resume next week, on November 18th and 19th, for the votes of the ministers. The first to speak will be minister-rapporteur Alexandre de Moraes. The order continues with Cristiano Zanin, Cármen Lúcia and Flávio Dino (president).
Minister Luiz Fux does not participate in the trial. The only one to vote for the acquittal of the defendants of the coup plot, he left the First Panel in October and did not formalize to the President of the Supreme Court the desire expressed in the plenary to maintain his right to vote in the processes regarding the coup plot.
