The First Panel of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) ended the first day of the trial of the defendants from Nucleus 3 of the coup plot that occurred during the government of former president Jair Bolsonaro.
The ministers heard arguments from the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), which spoke in favor of the defendants’ conviction, and from six of the ten defendants’ lawyers. They denied the defendants’ participation in the plot.
The session was suspended at around 6:50 pm and will resume this Wednesday morning (12), when the other defenses will be heard and the ministers’ votes for conviction or acquittal will be given.
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The nucleus is made up of nine Army soldiers and a federal police officer. They are responsible for the crimes of armed criminal organization, attempted violent abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law, coup d’état, qualified damage through violence and serious threat and deterioration of listed property.
The accused are known as “black kids”, soldiers who were part of the Army’s special forces group. They are accused by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) of planning “tactical actions” to carry out the coup plan and kill minister Alexandre de Moraes, vice-president Geraldo Alckmin, and president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Coup meeting
During the trial, the defense of Army Colonel Márcio Nunes de Resende Júnior denied that the soldier had participated in a meeting to pressure the Army command to join the coup attempt in 2022.
According to the complaint from the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), the meeting was held to discuss the drafting of a letter to pressure the Army High Command to consummate the coup d’état.
According to lawyer Rafael Favetti, the meeting, which took place on November 28, 2022, was a “get-together” of former colleagues, in the party room of the building where the soldier lived and had no coup intentions.
During the argument, the lawyer was interrupted by Minister Flávio Dino. The minister said that the lawyer had not cited one of the three WhatsApp messages used by the PGR to confirm that the colonel participated in conversations to incite the Armed Forces to join the coup.
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“I was in doubt, because Your Excellency spoke of confusion of authorship. ‘If we don’t have the courage to face the egghead [Moraes] and electoral fraud, who are we going to face?’ Is this message from Mr Marcio?”, he asked.
The lawyer then confirmed that the message was written by Marcio and said that he did not mention it because it was an insult to Minister Alexandre de Moraes.
“But this message has no relation to the referendum on the letter and pressure on superiors, derived from the meeting”, he clarified.
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The defense of retired Army general Estevam Theóphilo called for the soldier’s acquittal and said that he had no connection with the coup acts of January 8, 2023 nor with the plan to try to use black kids to promote actions to prevent Lula’s inauguration.
According to investigations, Theóphilo met three times with Bolsonaro, at the end of 2022. According to the Federal Police, the use of Law and Order Guarantee (GLO) operations or the declaration of a state of siege was discussed.
At the time, Estevam Theóphilo was responsible for the Land Operations Command (Coter), an elite army troop called the “black kids” troop.
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According to lawyer Diego Rodrigues Musy, Theófilo’s meetings with Bolsonaro occurred with the knowledge of the then Army commander, Freire Gomes, and that the general had no contact with others accused of the coup plot or participated in “resistance movements against the polls”.
“There is no message, no evidence or communication in the records. The general was never included in any document in this process or in any of the aforementioned enforcement acts”, he added.
The following researchers are part of this nucleus:
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- Bernardo Romão Correa Netto (colonel);
- Estevam Theophilo (general);
- Fabrício Moreira de Bastos (colonel);
- Hélio Ferreira Lima (lieutenant colonel);
- Márcio Nunes de Resende Júnior (colonel);
- Rafael Martins de Oliveira (lieutenant colonel);
- Rodrigo Bezerra de Azevedo (lieutenant colonel);
- Ronald Ferreira de Araújo Júnior (lieutenant colonel);
- Sérgio Ricardo Cavaliere de Medeiros (lieutenant colonel);
- Wladimir Matos Soares (federal police officer).
Other cores
To date, the STF has already convicted 15 defendants for the coup plot. There are seven convicts from Nucleus 4 and eight more defendants who belong to Nucleus 1, led by former president Jair Bolsonaro.
Group 2 will be judged from December 9th.
Nucleus 5 is formed by businessman Paulo Figueiredo, grandson of the former president of the dictatorship João Figueiredo. He lives in the United States, and there is no date for the trial.
