The only one among ten people convicted of the coup plot issued last week, the president of the Instituto Voto Legal used social media to defend himself against accusations of having helped spread disinformation against electronic voting machines.
In three publications made on the engineer’s website on Monday (29), after he was sought out by the Federal Police, Rocha thanked the expressions of support and stated, in one of the messages, that the PGR (Attorney General’s Office) had contradictory positions in the
Rocha became the only name still sought by the PF after Army lieutenant colonel Guilherme Marques Almeida handed himself in to the Federal Police, on Sunday (28), upon landing at Goiânia airport.
Rocha’s defense states that he moved from the house in São Paulo targeted by the PF search and did not provide the new address. He also said that he does not know whether the engineer himself made the publications on his social network profile.
The minister, from the STF (Supreme Federal Court), pointed out the risk of fleeing abroad as a “modus operandi” for ten people convicted of the coup plot.
As an example, he cited the cases of , former head of the (Brazilian Intelligence Agency) in the government of (), and former director of the PRF ().
Moraes’ decision was taken one day after the . He was detained in Paraguay on Friday (26), when he tried to board a flight to El Salvador. The former director of the PRF carried a letter, in which he said he had brain cancer and that he would travel for medical treatment.
Rocha was one of the defendants in the so-called “nucleus 4” of the coup plot investigated by , related to attempts to question the electoral result and spread disinformation about the 2022 electronic voting machines.
A post made on Rocha’s LinkedIn profile states: “The PGR made a very positive assessment of our technical report and my professional qualifications in the accusation against Nucleus 1.” Then, he states that “in absolute contradiction, the same PGR stated exactly the opposite in the accusation against Nucleus 4”.
Instituto Voto Legal was hired by PL, the party of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), to audit the 2022 elections. For , however, the engineer produced and released a technical report that served as the basis for actions that sought to annul votes, actions that were part of the scheme to attack the ballot boxes and the electoral process.
In October, the First Panel of the STF sentenced Rocha to 7 years and 6 months in prison for armed criminal organization and attempted violent abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law in the context of this case.
Rocha and his lawyers claim that the institute’s work was of a technical and audit nature, with no political intention of delegitimizing electronic voting machines, and that the report did not claim fraud, only made technical observations.
Rocha told the Panel that he was going through a “difficult time”, and did not want to make any statements about the fact that he was considered a fugitive.
In a statement, Guilherme Marques Almeida’s defense said that the soldier always collaborated with the courts and attended all procedural acts. He also stated that the decision to house arrest is an unnecessary measure and that “at an opportune moment” he will make a statement in the process.
In addition to Rocha, the other names subject to house arrest are: Ailton Gonçalves Moraes Barros, former Army major; Ângelo Denicoli, Army reserve major; Bernardo Romão Corrêa Netto, Army colonel; Fabrício Moreira de Bastos, Army colonel; Filipe Martins, former advisor for international affairs.
Also placed under house arrest were Giancarlo Rodrigues, an Army sub-lieutenant; Guilherme Marques Almeida, Army lieutenant colonel; Marília Alencar, former director of Intelligence at the Ministry of Justice; and Sérgio Ricardo Cavaliere de Medeiros, lieutenant colonel of the Army.
The former director of the PRF. He is imprisoned in Papudinha, . The defense asks for Silvinei’s transfer to Santa Catarina, a measure not yet evaluated by Moraes.
Silvinei’s defense had requested that he be taken to Papudinha, if Moraes denied the request for the former PRF director to be kept in prison in Santa Catarina, preferably in São José or Florianópolis, where he has “consolidated family, social and professional ties”.
