Bolsonaro businessman Paulo Figueiredo told Sheetthis Wednesday (17), that the (Supreme Federal Court) “accentuates our position as victims and increases our ammunition”.
Eduardo was sentenced to an initially semi-open regime for the crime of coercion during the process for his role in intimidating the Brazilian Judiciary and preventing the analysis of the coup plot. The trial took place on Tuesday (16).
The former deputy stated on social media that the conviction is “unsound” and aims to remove him from the elections.
With the conviction, he will be prevented from competing in competitions for eight years. He will also have to pay a fine equivalent to around R$150,000 and will lose his position as clerk, from which he has been removed. There is still an appeal.
After failing to present his lawyers to the court, Eduardo was represented by federal public defender Antonio Ezequiel Inácio Barbosa.
According to Figueiredo, the former deputy must hire a lawyer when he is summoned. According to him, the conviction reinforces the points that he and Eduardo have discussed in the USA. Among the requests from Bolsonarists on American soil, the request for the return of the Magnitsky Law has been increasingly recurring.
The law provides for sanctions against foreigners accused by the US of serious human rights violations or corruption. The sanction was applied against Moraes last year, but withdrawn in December after rapprochement between him and Donald Trump.
In February, Eduardo Bolsonaro spoke about this request during CPAC, the largest conservative event in the world. In May, during Flávio’s visit to the White House, who was accompanied by Figueiredo and Eduardo, the request for the return of the sanction was also made — according to those present, only the businessman and the former deputy reinforced the request, and Flávio preferred to abstain from the request.
“We found the conviction amusing. It doesn’t change anything in our lives except to accentuate our position as victims and increase our ammunition”, says Figueiredo, who states that he and Eduardo only intend to return to Brazil if Flávio is elected president. “[Isso] remains. Eduardo came here knowing he would be condemned.”
“[A condenação] It gives us additional ammunition against the other ministers in the group who are also next on the list”, analyzes Figueiredo.
During this Wednesday’s trial, the minister stated that the “disinformation” brought by Eduardo and journalist Paulo Figueiredo to the government, which resulted in the application of tariffs against Brazilian products, harmed the whole of Brazil with the intention of benefiting the former president (PL), but “did not frighten this court”.
Paulo Figueiredo, who is also a defendant in the coup plot case, was denounced along with Bolsonaro’s son. The process, however, ended up being dismembered. Moraes ordered that Eduardo be summoned by notice, arguing that it hindered the progress of the process, while the guidance for Figueiredo, who has lived in the USA for more than ten years, was to notify him in person, through international legal cooperation.
When accusing Eduardo, the PGR stated that he, citing political persecution by the Supreme Court, mobilized contacts in the United States to obtain personal sanctions against ministers, such as the suspension of visas and the application of the Magnitsky Law, and economic punishments for Brazil, such as the “tariff” applied by in 2025.
