The possibility of the former president’s arrest () in a closed regime, given the proximity of the Supreme Court against his conviction, caused members of the top brass to resume behind the scenes, in a strategy to alleviate the pressure for amnesty.
The rapporteur of the project in the Chamber, deputy (Solidariedade-SP), told interlocutors that he intends to approve the project next Tuesday (25), in a combined action for analysis in the same week.
Party leaders heard by the Sheet they say they were not consulted about the vote. When contacted, Paulinho did not respond to the report’s contacts.
The president of the Chamber, (-PB), stated in interviews with TV stations that he is waiting for the rapporteur to file the opinion “in the next few days” to take the matter to the deliberation of the college of party leaders, which is consulted to define which projects are voted on weekly.
The president of the Senate, (-AP), would still remain resistant, but allies are trying to convince him to accept the reduction of sentences for those convicted of the January 8, 2023 coup attacks on the headquarters of the three Powers — a thesis that he himself defended, by promising repeatedly.
Bolsonaro is currently under house arrest, and experts say that the publication this week of the ruling rejecting the first appeal has opened up legal room for embargoes against his conviction for an attempted coup.
Allies of Alcolumbre and Paulinho say that the ideal would be to approve the project before Bolsonaro’s arrest to serve his sentence, which would mean that the matter had already been dealt with and avoid a new climate of demonstrations and pressure on center and center-right politicians.
The possibility of him being in the Federal District, at least for a few days, could encourage this movement, despite members of the center calling for the prison to be served at home, due to the former president’s health problems.
Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison by the STF for five crimes, as leader of the coup plot. Another seven defendants were sentenced to imprisonment. In addition to them, hundreds of people were punished for the acts of January 8th.
The opposition defends a broad, general and unrestricted amnesty for these convicts, and the PL pressured Motta for months to put the project to a vote. The acronym says it will propose an amendment in plenary so that the , with the speech that it has the support of the majority of deputies, but this led to repeated postponements in the discussion.
The President of the Chamber’s strategy, already agreed with allies, is to use the same device adopted to prevent the amendment that attempted to classify criminal factions as terrorist organizations, in the anti-faction project: Motta will state that the matter is unconstitutional and .
The intention of the Congress leadership is that the project only deals with a reduction in sentences, which will allow those sentenced for a shorter period of time to be removed from prison and reduce Bolsonaro’s time in the closed regime — which, in the center’s view, would facilitate the former president’s support for the presidential candidacy of a politician from outside the family.
Despite Bolsonaro’s sentence to more than 27 years in prison, the legislation provides for . The most current version of the project’s opinion, prepared by Paulinho after consultations with STF ministers, reduced the estimated time spent in prison for the former president in a closed regime from 6 years and 10 months to something around 3 years, according to deputies who had access to the text. This is a little longer than the previous version, which was reduced to 2 years and 3 months.
This reduction would occur with the unification of the crimes of violent abolition of the democratic rule of law and coup d’état. Furthermore, the project establishes that, in these cases, the progression regime will be after serving one-sixth of the sentence, not another quarter.
The left has been protesting against this project, and the president (PT) started to indicate that he would veto the proposal if approved by the Senate, after dubious speeches, after the end of the trial and with the conviction carried out.
