Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), stated this Tuesday (9) that the requests for Minister Luiz Fux to participate in the trial are “absurd” and “cause astonishment”.
At the beginning of General Mário Fernandes’ defense he raised a point of order. He maintained that the criminal action in nucleus 2 is not a separate process, but the continuity of a single factual context. Therefore, he argued that Fux (who participated in the trials of groups 1 and 4) should also be part of the group 2, based on the principle that defendants must have the same rights and conditions.
When responding, Moraes stated that the request does not have “the slightest relevance” and classified it as absurd to allow a minister to act in two groups at the same time. According to him, the requests probably arise because lawyers are not used to working in the Supreme Court.
“It is not at all relevant, with all due respect. In addition to being procrastinating, the request that a minister from the Second Panel be part of a trial by the First Panel is absurd. The internal rules clearly say that three ministers are sufficient, and no minister can be part of both groups at the same time. This is so obvious that the request is surprising, perhaps this happens because lawyers are not used to working in the Supreme Court. Obviously I reject the request due to the legal impossibility of the request”, said Moraes.
On Monday (8), Filipe Martins’ defense had made the same request through the STF’s virtual system. .
Minister Luiz Fux asked to change the STF class and had his request granted by the President of the Court, Edson Fachin, in October. In the request, however, he made himself available to continue with the trials already scheduled at the collegiate to which he belonged, including those involving the coup plot, a hypothesis that is not foreseen in the internal regulations.
Since the change, relevant trials that were in the First Panel have taken place with only four ministers: Alexandre de Moraes, Cármen Lúcia, Cristiano Zanin and Flávio Dino. With a reduced quorum and without Fux’s dissonant voice, cases such as the appeals of Jair Bolsonaro and other defendants against convictions for attempted coup, the trial of nucleus 3 of the coup plot and the complaint against Eduardo Bolsonaro for coercion during the course of the process were decided unanimously.
