Those by the former president () and other defendants convicted in the coup plot must be taken to trial in the First Panel of the (Supreme Federal Court) from November 7th in a virtual session.
In this modality, ministers present votes through a digital system during a determined period of time. The session in this case must last until the 14th. There is the possibility of requesting a review (more time for analysis) or highlighting (which takes the judgment to the physical plenary).
Bolsonaro presented this Monday (27) an appeal to the STF against the arrest. He used the minister’s dissenting vote in his argument and said that the conviction was inaccurate and omitted.
The former president’s defense also cited Fux when saying that the lawyers had, in the process, serious restriction of defense and accusatory excess.
Other defenses also presented, on Monday, motions for clarification, a type of appeal used to point out some obscurity, inaccuracy, contradiction or omission in the decision.
This type of embargo, in theory, does not change the outcome of the trial —conviction or acquittal—, but it can raise questions about the conviction and even reduce the size of the defendants’ sentences.
Infringing embargoes, applicable only when there is a dissenting vote in favor of the defendant, have a slightly longer period of 15 days — a period that can, in practice, be extended, given that embargoes for clarification suspend the counting of the deadline until the merits are judged.
The Supreme Court’s jurisprudence defines that infringing embargoes are only allowed when there are two votes in favor of the defendant. This type of appeal must be rejected by the court, without analysis of the merits.
The sentence must only be served after the end of the process, with all appeals analyzed by the Supreme Court. The court expects this phase to end this year. Only with the end of the criminal action should the STF decide whether Bolsonaro will serve his sentence in a common prison, in a military unit or under home confinement.
Bolsonaro was convicted of the crimes of coup d’état, abolition of the democratic rule of law, armed criminal organization, qualified damage to public property and deterioration of listed property.
The conviction keeps him ineligible for up to eight years after the end of his sentence — a period that should end in 2060.
The trial score was 4 votes to 1. Minister Luiz Fux, isolated, said that Bolsonaro’s meetings with the heads of elections and the declarations of attack on the polls constituted “mere irresignation with the electoral result”.
The appeals phase opened with the publication, on the 22nd, of the trial ruling — a document that makes the result of the First Panel official.
