The defense of former minister Walter Braga Netto stated to the (Supreme Federal Court) this Monday (27) that the ruling with the defendants of the central core of the coup plot for attempted coup has “vices, contradictions and omissions” that should result in the annulment of the process from the beginning.
Among the omissions pointed out, the thesis of suspicion of the rapporteur, Minister Alexandre de Moraes, due to the volume and method of sending the evidence material, as well as the time for data analysis, the refusal to participate in interrogations of the other groups and regarding the allegation of coercion against the lieutenant colonel in the plea bargain.
The general’s lawyers stated that they have questioned Moraes’ impartiality since the beginning of the process and that, although the court rejected this allegation, new episodes throughout the criminal action reinforced the thesis.
“In closing arguments, the minister’s inquisitive stance was demonstrated when he interviewed some witnesses, being highlighted in relation to Mr. Waldo Manuel de Oliveira Aires. In this case, questions were asked about the witness’s statements on his social network and which were not included in the process. These questions were not even asked by the PGR”, they stated.
The attempt to disqualify Cid’s testimony is also one of the main theses of Braga Netto’s defense since the beginning of the process.
“Since the preliminary response, the present defense has been exposing the various evidence regarding the voluntariness of the whistleblower Mauro Cid in his plea bargain agreement. This became even more latent on 6/12/2025, when Revista Veja published an article entitled ‘Evidence obtained by VEJA shows that Mauro Cid lied to the STF about messages'”, they said.
The suspicions cited show that a profile named @gabrielar702, allegedly used by Cid, sent messages, in first person, claiming that he felt pressured by the PF in his statements and that the investigators had a pre-established objective of arresting Bolsonaro.
According to the appeal sent to Minister Alexandre de Moraes, the almost 80 TB shared were “dumped into these files through three SharePoint clouds without any indexing”, made available to the defense on May 17th and supplemented by the Federal Police in June and July.
“A thorough analysis, as required by the exercise of adversarial proceedings, in such a short period of time, since all the material was provided, is an unfeasible task,” said the general’s lawyers.
“Obviously it was not possible to work solely on trying to access the files, since, since the provision of the material, there have been almost daily acts of instruction, making effective analysis over time impossible. Therefore, the sending of the entire volume of materials by the PF does not mean effective access to the material”, said the general’s lawyers.
In another appeal, Anderson Torres’ defense highlighted 14 errors, omissions and contradictions in the Supreme Court’s judgment. For the former minister, the court’s decision ignored the fact that Torres had acted to prevent the court headquarters from being invaded during the January 8 attacks.
Proof of his innocence, according to the former Minister of Justice’s defense, is a message sent by Torres with orders to prevent the mob from reaching the Supreme Court.
“The sentencing grounds, therefore, ignore the existence of this evidence, compromising the adequate understanding of the factual context and the correct assessment of the omission attributed to the plaintiff”, he says.
On September 11 (PL), the First Panel of the Supreme Court sentenced 70 to 27 years and 3 months in prison for attempted coup d’état, on charges of . It is the first time in the country’s history that a former president is .
Bolsonaro was also found guilty of the crimes of armed criminal organization, abolition of the democratic rule of law, qualified damage to public property and deterioration of listed property.
Braga Netto was sentenced to 26 years in prison with an initial closed regime, including with the vote of , who .
In the complaint, the PGR (Attorney General’s Office) points to Braga Netto as the leader, alongside Bolsonaro, of a criminal organization. The PF states that a meeting took place at his home in which the plan to kill (), the vice-president () and the STF minister was discussed.
