The Attorney General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet, defended this Tuesday (16) the rejection of the (PL). According to the PGR, the conviction was given based on a “vigorous body of evidence”.
Gonet stated, in the statement sent to the STF (Supreme Federal Court), that the former president’s actions were not a passive stance, but rather an articulation to generate an environment conducive to violence and a coup.
“The control of the public machine, the instrumentalization of State resources and the manipulation of its functions were used to encourage radicalization and the rupture of the democratic order,” he said.
Bolsonaro’s lawyers are asking for the attempted coup d’état to be annulled. In a 90-page document sent to the STF on May 8, they state that the basis of the request “is the reparation of the judicial error”.
To the rapporteur of the request, Kassio Nunes Marques, Gonet stated that the conclusions of the First Panel, in the trial in 2025, confirm that Bolsonaro “acted systematically, throughout his mandate and after his defeat at the polls, to incite the insurrection and destabilization of the State”.
For the PGR, Bolsonaro led the coup movement by controlling protesters and instrumentalizing State institutions.
“The theses raised by the author at the beginning of the present revisional action did not bring any novelty to legitimize the deconstruction of the definitive jurisdictional pronouncement, either due to contradiction with the express text of the criminal law or the evidence in the case, or because it was based on testimonies, examinations or documents proven to be false or, even, due to the discovery of new evidence of the innocence of the convicted person or circumstances that determine or authorize a special reduction of the sentence. There is no relevant reason to relativize the intangibility of the res judicata formed”, said.
In the 159-page statement, Gonet included excerpts from the votes of the ministers of the First Panel, Alexandre de Moraes, Flávio Dino, Cármen Lúcia and Cristiano Zanin. Luiz Fux was defeated when he voted for Bolsonaro’s acquittal.
The criminal review was drawn among the members of the Second Panel, composed of Kassio, André Mendonça, Gilmar Mendes, Dias Toffoli and Fux, who changed panels at the end of the trial.
According to the SheetKassio the material delivered to his office.
A lawyer allied with Bolsonaro stated, with reservations, that he expects the case to progress similarly to a criminal action and that, in Kassio’s hands, it will take approximately one to two years.
After the statement from the Public Prosecutor’s Office, responsible for the accusation, an instruction is opened to find out whether there is evidence to be produced or not, and subsequently the agenda is set for the collegial analysis of the requested review.
The judgment should be made, in theory, by the full plenary of the court. The STF’s internal regulations say that the review will be carried out by the “court”, but this must still be consolidated later on, especially due to changes in the understanding of the powers of the plenary and groups.
In the request for criminal review, the former president’s defense also requires, for example, the annulment of the plea bargain of , Bolsonaro’s former aide-de-camp and, thus, the nullity of all evidence arising from the collaboration.
The pending criminal review, however, does not prevent the execution of the criminal conviction, according to the Supreme Court’s own understanding.
Bolsonaro is currently serving his sentence under house arrest. The measure initially lasted 90 days by the minister, rapporteur of the coup plot, so that the former president could recover from bilateral pneumonia that caused him to be hospitalized at the end of March.
