The (Superior Military Court) maintained, this Wednesday (24), the decision that denied a request from the defense of (PL) to declare minister Joseli Parente a suspect in the case of the former president.
The decision was taken unanimously. Parente is an air lieutenant and vice-president of the court.
The ministers analyzed an appeal against a March decision by the president of the STM, Maria Elizabeth Rocha. The lawyers are asking for Parente’s removal due to the minister’s praise of the president (PT) and for statements to the press about the trial of the soldiers convicted of the coup plot.
The minister, however, stated that the arguments are “too empty and insufficient to attribute partiality” to the vice-president of the STM, who was nominated to Lula to the military court in 2015.
During the session, she only read her vote and was accompanied by the other ministers.
In the request, Bolsonaro’s defense mentions an interview entitled “STM will punish military personnel who committed crimes on 8/1” in which Parente states: “We will judge with complete justice, with full right to defense and contradictory and, if you have actually committed crimes, if you reach us, you will be punished”.
It also cites the report “New president of the STM, brigadier preaches ‘pacification’ and praises Lula”, published by in March 2023, which contains excerpts from the minister’s inauguration speech at the head of the court. At the time, he said that the court would “judge military crimes provided for by law.”
Lawyers for the former president, who is a retired Army captain, argued that Joseli Parente’s speeches would demonstrate a “decision-making anticipation” of the trial against Bolsonaro.
In her decision, the president of the STM stated that there was only a declaration based “on strict legality: that the Military Justice, if activated, and after due legal process, observing the broad defense and contradiction, would apply the appropriate punishment, if guilt is demonstrated”.
Maria Elizabeth Rocha also stated that the minister’s speech in 2023 did not refer to any specific military officer and referred to the hypothetical commission of military crimes. “Thus, at the time, there was no speech or value judgment regarding the judgment on the declaration of unworthiness,” he said.
The Superior Military Court received, on February 3, the representations of loss of rank of the five soldiers convicted by the (Supreme Federal Court) in the crucial nucleus of the coup plot.
In addition to Bolsonaro’s case, the court will evaluate the cases of retired generals Augusto Heleno, Walter Braga Netto and Paulo Sérgio Nogueira and admiral Almir Garnier.
In this Wednesday’s session, by majority, the ministers also denied an appeal by Garnier’s defense to produce evidence. The vote of the rapporteur, Verônica Sterman, also nominated by Lula, who was against witness statements, won.
Sterman, however, was in favor of allowing the defense to add written statements from witnesses to the process and sending a request to Minister Alexandre de Moraes, rapporteur of the coup plot in the STF, to authorize or not the sharing of the testimonies of the Navy commander, Admiral Marcos Olsen, and former minister Aldo Rebelo, in addition to a request to the Navy command for Garnier’s functional records, such as individual praise and performance evaluations.
The analysis of this appeal by the admiral, despite having been taken in a specific case, should serve to guide the rite of the military process in court. This is because there is a division in the STM regarding the criteria for conducting these judgments.
As it is a representation, it is not up to the Military Court to reanalyze the sentencing decision, only to define whether those acts and crimes prevent the maintenance of officer status. A group of ministers understands, however, that the assessment of convictions, in itself, is sufficient to form a judgment.
Minister Péricles Aurélio Lima de Queiroz, for example, opened a disagreement and voted to authorize the testimonies. According to him, not holding hearings would be “outsourcing” Military Justice, which will depend on Supreme Court documents.
“Hearing six witnesses. There is no difficulty. It does not mean any delay”, he stated after the rapporteur argued that, if the request from Garnier’s lawyers was accepted, the process would “never” end.
as to Sheeta wing of STM ministers must review the evidence of the coup plot process to maintain patents of the defendants in the central core of the case. This path must be adopted to try to preserve the uniforms of Augusto Heleno and Paulo Sérgio Nogueira.
Behind the scenes, the rapporteurs of the cases have already told colleagues in the court that they must analyze the condemnatory records, which bring together the evidence of the case, to form their positions. The assessment is that the warning reinforces the perspective that some magistrates must maintain certain uniforms.
Still as a result of this option, the judgments must wait until after the elections, as the material is extensive.
In case of conviction, after conclusion and exhaustion of appeals, the STM communicates the decision to the commander of the respective Force. From then on, soldiers go through an administrative process and can be expelled from the Forces, and leave a pension for their family members.
The STM is made up of 15 ministers: 5 civilians and 10 military (four from the Army, three from the Navy and three from the Air Force). There are, in the current composition, four nominees in Lula’s current term. Among them are military personnel involved in the coup plot.
