Jair Bolsonaro’s defense asked Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), not to consider the seizure of a weapon in the former president’s name as a “serious offense”, and to maintain house arrest, whose initial period of 90 days ended on Friday, the 26th.
The pistol was seized from an Army soldier on June 15 during a traffic stop in the Federal District. If the episode is considered a serious offense under the Criminal Execution Law, Bolsonaro could suffer sanctions, including losing his right to home residence.
In a statement filed on Saturday night, the 27th, the former president’s lawyers maintain that the weapon was regularly registered and was already stored in the residence before the conviction and the beginning of house arrest.
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According to the defense, the weapon had been removed from the house to be sent for repair, due to a mechanical failure. Lawyers claim that, since the police approach, the military informed that the weapons belonged to Bolsonaro.
“There was no concealment of the weapon, tampering with registration, use of procedures designed to frustrate state supervision or any conduct aimed at preventing the identification of its origin or ownership. On the contrary, ownership of the weapon was immediately recognized and never constituted an unknown or clandestine circumstance”, says the defense in the statement.
In the petition, the defenders also argue that Bolsonaro was never notified about the possible revocation of the weapon’s registration, nor about the opening of an administrative process for this purpose.
For the lawyers, as there was no court order for the seizure, return or definitive loss of the weapon, the weapon’s presence in the residence could not be considered illegal for disciplinary purposes.
The defense also states that there is no concrete element that indicates intent or guilt on the part of the former president for failing to comply with a court decision or violating the rules of criminal execution.
At the end of the document, the lawyers ask the STF to remove the definition of serious misconduct and maintain compliance with the sentence “in the exact terms currently established, with the extension of the humanitarian home regime.”
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Bolsonaro’s defense petition comes in the wake of a statement from the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) on the case. Moraes ordered the body to take a position by mentioning that, in the Criminal Execution Law, it is considered serious misconduct to “improperly possess an instrument capable of offending the physical integrity of another”.
On Thursday, the 25th, the PGR stated that it was not possible to comment on whether or not serious misconduct had been committed until the investigations were completed.
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The weapon was seized from Army second sergeant Estácio Leite da Silva Filho, who was driving an official vehicle for the Presidency of the Republic when he was stopped during a traffic stop in Taguatinga, north of Brasília.
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During the stop, the officer noticed the presence of a pistol in the car. According to the agent, upon realizing that the weapon had been noticed, Estácio “suddenly” closed the window. The pistol was collected, and the soldier claimed to have authorized possession as a member of the Institutional Security Cabinet (GSI).
Estácio stated that the weapon would be registered in his function, but the police officer, however, found that there was no record of the equipment in the name of a server.
The soldier then admitted that the pistol belonged to Jair Bolsonaro. According to the second sergeant, the weapon was given to him hours earlier, with the purpose of carrying out a repair on the precursor.
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