The government’s Christmas pardon decree (PT) will once again exclude those convicted of the coup plot – as well as those of the coup plot -, in a similar vein to that adopted by the PT member since the first year of government.
The text prepared by the president’s team must provide for the forgiveness of sentences for high-risk pregnant women and also for mothers and grandmothers convicted of non-violent crimes that are essential to the care of children and adolescents up to 16 years of age with disabilities.
The decree, which must be signed in the coming days, does not allow benefits for those who make plea bargains and for members of criminal factions in leadership positions. Those convicted of crimes of violence against women and crimes committed against children and adolescents will also not be entitled to a pardon.
The Christmas pardon is a collective pardon of sentences granted by the President of the Republic, provided for in the Federal Constitution. In practice, it can totally or partially extinguish the sentence of prisoners who meet the criteria defined in a presidential decree.
The proposal was prepared by the National Council for Criminal and Penitentiary Policy and sent by the Minister of Justice and Public Security, to Palácio do Planalto, on December 10th. The decree should be published in the Official Gazette of the Union this week.
The pardon must provide that conditions will be made easier for people over 60 years of age, prisoners with serious illnesses and people essential to the care of children and adolescents up to 16 years of age in general.
Those infected with HIV in the terminal stage or who have a chronic or highly contagious disease, without the possibility of care in the prison unit, should also benefit.
Inmates with severe autism spectrum disorder and inmates who have become paraplegic, quadriplegic or blind, among other disabilities, are other priority groups.
Impediments to accessing the benefit must include leaders of criminal factions, prisoners under the Differentiated Disciplinary Regime and those included in or transferred to maximum security penal establishments.
Those convicted of heinous crimes, torture, terrorism, racism, money laundering and concealment of assets are also left out.
The proposed decree will replicate the one adopted in 2024, which prohibited pardons for those convicted of abuse of authority, reinforcing the accountability of public agents who use their functions improperly. Those who committed crimes against public administration, such as embezzlement and passive corruption, will not benefit. In addition, the impediment to benefits for those who entered into a plea bargain agreement was renewed.
In 2019, the (Supreme Federal Court) understood that the President of the Republic has the constitutional power to issue the pardon. Each year, the government debates the criteria for who will be able to access or be excluded from the benefit.
Lula’s text once again excludes those convicted of crimes against the democratic rule of law from pardon, which includes those convicted of the coup acts of January 8, 2023.
The president also states that he will reduce the sentences of those convicted of the coup plot, known as PL da Dosimetria. The proposal could reduce the time that former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) will spend in the closed prison sentence regime from the current 6 to 8 years to a period that could range from 2 years and 4 months to 4 years and 2 months, depending on the interpretation.
Allies have advocated that the president veto the proposal on January 8, 2026. The date marks the three-year anniversary of the coup attacks on the headquarters of the three Powers promoted by Bolsonaro’s allies, which took place in January 2023.
