The First Panel of the (Supreme Federal Court) unanimously condemned, this Tuesday (18), nine defendants, involving military personnel accused of acting in the attempted coup d’état at the end of 2022, in the (PL) government.
All ministers of the collegiate expressed themselves in this sense: , and Cármen Lúcia and the president of the collegiate, .
They argued, however, that two of them should only be charged with lesser crimes, such as inciting animosity against the Armed Forces and criminal association. Furthermore, they demonstrated for the acquittal of the retired general due to lack of evidence.
It is the first time that Moraes, rapporteur of the case, stands for the acquittal of a defendant in the coup plot, as well as Zanin and Cármen.
The STF resumed in this session the trial of the military accused of acting in the coup attempt.
This nucleus is made up of nine military personnel and a federal police officer. The majority of those denounced by the (Attorney General’s Office) are officers with training in special forces, the so-called “black kids”.
First to vote, Moraes spoke out to condemn five crimes (reserve colonel), (colonel), (lieutenant colonel), (lieutenant colonel), (lieutenant colonel), (reserve lieutenant colonel) and (federal police officer).
They are accused of armed criminal organization, attempted abolition of the democratic rule of law, coup d’état, deterioration of public property and damage to listed property.
Those who, for Moraes, can face lighter sentences are (reserve colonel) and (lieutenant colonel).
Rodrigo Bezerra and Wladimir Soares attended part of the court plenary session. The lieutenant colonel, however, left shortly after Zanin’s vote to convict him.
The PGR had already understood that Ronald did not participate in coup meetings, but only spread false information about fraud in the electoral process to incite the Armed Forces towards democratic rupture.
In Theophilo’s case, Moraes understood that, “despite strong evidence of the defendant’s participation [na trama golpista]”, it is not possible to convict him based on the evidence produced in court.
The main one is a meeting that Theophilo had with Bolsonaro in 2022, in which both claim that there was no presentation of the draft of the coup or discussion in this regard. According to them, it would only be for the then president to “clear” his dissatisfactions with the electoral process.
Theophilo, who at the time was High Command of the Army, was accused of endorsing the coup plans in the meeting with Bolsonaro, which he denies.
When reading his vote, Moraes stated that the military tried to co-opt the Army High Command to join the plan to keep Bolsonaro in power after the defeat to (PT) in the 2022 elections.
According to the minister, this occurred at the meeting of military personnel with training in Special Operations, the “black kids”, at the end of November 2022. At the time, they took advantage of the fact that the Army High Command was meeting in Brasília to bring together the generals’ assistants in a get-together.
“Initially there was the idea of co-opting the three weapons, but the Navy commander had already demonstrated that he had embraced this possibility, so he focused on co-opting the Army High Command, and mainly the general commander of the Army, General Freire Gomes”, said Moraes, when reading his vote.
The former head of the Navy, Admiral Almir Garnier, was on trial at the center of the coup attempt.
“The idea was to get those who were very close [com o Alto Comando]”, said the minister about the meeting. “Several groups repeated in oral arguments and memorials that ‘subordinates in the Armed Forces do not exercise influence in relation to their commanders’. It’s not true,” he added.
“They do not exercise power in relation to their commanders, but the one who is working daily and the one who performs the role of chief of staff or second in command gives their opinions. Here, clearly, they wanted to put pressure on their generals, their commanders, so that they put pressure on the Army commander, General Freire Gomes”, he added.
Moraes also voted to condemn part of the military for participating in the clandestine group called . According to the PGR, the two soldiers, under code names, were ready to neutralize the Supreme Court minister, but ended up aborting the operation, without the approval of the Army Command.
After Moraes, Zanin voted, who fully followed Moraes’ understanding.
Afterwards, Cármen rebutted one of the defense arguments that members of the Armed Forces with a lower hierarchy cannot try to influence superiors.
“There is no need to say that people of lower rank cannot act to pressure superiors. There is no possibility of it being acceptable that, by taking care of documents and messages from colonels and lieutenant colonels, that someone would not be influenced. Influence comes from those who have influence, not a certain position”, he said.
The analysis is expected to be completed by Wednesday morning (19).
does not participate in the trial. The only one to vote for the acquittal of the defendants in 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 case processes.
In the vote, Moraes displayed messages from the defendants to lieutenant colonel Mauro Cid, to demonstrate what an alignment of this nucleus with that of the main people convicted of the coup plot would be like — among them, Bolsonaro.
The messages, according to Moraes, attempted to delegitimize the elections and electronic voting machines to foment a coup d’état. They also spoke about the need for demonstrations in Congress and the Supreme Court with the support of the Armed Forces.
“They were already talking openly about the use of troops and going to the National Congress and STF on November 11, two months before the coup attempt,” he said.
Last week, the plenary heard oral arguments from the parties to the process, including the PGR and the defenses of the ten defendants. Each one had up to one hour to present their arguments — Paulo Gonet had two hours.
In general, the lawyers claim that the accusation was based on what was presented by the defenses in the case file and even testimonies from witnesses and the whistleblower Mauro Cid.
The defenses of those involved, who are not black kids, of Moraes.
