This Monday, 11th, minister Kassio Nunes Marques was selected as rapporteur for the request for criminal review presented by the defense of former president Jair Bolsonaro to the Federal Supreme Court (STF). The action was filed last Friday, 8th, and seeks to annul the 27-year prison sentence imposed on the former president for an attempted coup d’état.
The draw did not include the names of Cristiano Zanin, Flávio Dino, Alexandre de Moraes and Cármen Lúcia, names of the First Panel, which judged Bolsonaro. Furthermore, Luiz Fux, a member of the Second Panel, but who also participated in the trial before the transfer, was also left out.
In the petition sent to the STF, the lawyers ask for Bolsonaro’s acquittal of crimes against the Democratic Rule of Law and allege that the trial carried out by the First Panel of the Court was irregular. The document has 90 pages.
The criminal review is signed by lawyers Marcelo Bessa and Thiago Lôbo Fleury, former advisor to minister Luiz Fux at the Supreme Court. Fux was part of the First Panel during the trial and voted for Bolsonaro’s acquittal.
One of the former president’s lawyers told Estadão that the action is not related to the new dosimetry law approved by Congress, which could reduce sentences for those convicted of coup acts. “The issue of dosimetry must be addressed in criminal execution and the application of the new law occurs within the scope of execution. Criminal review is not an appeal. It is an action that seeks to repair legal violations, among other reasons, in a criminal action that has become final,” said Bessa.
The process that resulted in the former president’s conviction was reported by minister Alexandre de Moraes. The lawyers are still asking for a statement from the Attorney General’s Office on the action.
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If these requests to annul the case are not accepted, Bolsonaro’s defense demands the complete acquittal of the former president of all crimes involving the coup plot attributed to him.
Lawyers ask for a review of convictions for armed criminal organization, coup d’état and attempted violent abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law. According to the defense, there was no concrete demonstration of Bolsonaro’s individual participation, nor executive acts that proved an attempt to depose the democratically elected government through the use of violence or serious threats.
The request also includes the dismissal of charges related to the acts of January 8, 2023, such as the crimes of qualified damage and deterioration of listed property. The justification is that there is no evidence of authorship, participation, instigation or subjective link between Bolsonaro and those carrying out the attacks on the headquarters of the Three Powers.
In the end, lawyers ask for authorization to present and use all the evidence permitted by law to try to prove the defense’s arguments in the process.
In September last year, the First Panel of the STF sentenced Bolsonaro to 27 years and 3 months in prison for the crimes of armed criminal organization, coup d’état, attempted violent abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law, deterioration of listed property and qualified damage to the Union’s property. The other seven defendants involved in the coup plot were also convicted of the same crimes, by a score of 4 to 1.
Last Friday, the president of the Senate, Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP), enacted the Dosimetry Law, which provides for the review of the sentences of those convicted of crimes against the Democratic Rule of Law. The project had been completely vetoed by Lula on January 8 of this year, during a ceremony at Palácio do Planalto in memory of three years of undemocratic acts.
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On April 20, Congress overturned, by 49 votes to 24 in the Senate, the presidential veto and directly benefited Bolsonaro. In the Chamber, the overturn of the veto was approved by 318 votes to 144, with five abstentions. With the veto overturned, the former president could have his sentence reduced to 20 years.
In April of this year, the former president was placed under humanitarian house arrest granted by Moraes in March, with an initial period of 90 days, to recover from bronchopneumonia. Previously, he served his sentence in the 19th Military Police Battalion of the Federal District, known as Papudinha.
