According to the AGU, the precautionary action against 42 prisoners must be converted into a public action for reimbursement of R$ 20.7 million to the public coffers.| Photo: Andre Borges/EFE

The Advocacy General of the Union (AGU) asked the Federal Court of the Federal District, this Wednesday (1st), for the final conviction of over 42 people arrested suspected of involvement in the invasion and depredation of the buildings of Praça dos Três Poderes on the 8th. of January. It was the second request of the day, which had the condemnation request of another 40 people hours before.

According to the AGU, the suspects had previously had their assets blocked in a precautionary measure, with a request now for a public civil action to reimburse R$ 20.7 million to the public coffers for the damage caused in the acts of January 8 to the headquarters of the National Congress, Planalto Palace and Federal Supreme Court (STF).

“The amount that the Attorney General’s Office regards as material damage is already incontrovertible, without prejudice to, in the course of the procedural instruction, new evidence being produced demonstrating even greater damage to public property”, says an excerpt from the action.

The AGU also recalls that documents presented by the Civil Police of the DF point out that the detainees “participated in the materialization of the acts of invasion and depredation of federal public buildings, so much so that, in the midst of these acts, they were arrested in flagrante delicto as responsible for the acts of vandalism in the premises of the buildings of the three Powers of the Republic and in the face of them preventive arrest was decreed. Therefore, the defendants, of their own free will and consciously, actively participated in illicit acts which, more than material damage to the federal public property that is the object of this action, resulted in damage to the democratic order itself and to the Brazilian image”.

So far, four lawsuits have been filed by the AGU against suspects involved in the acts. The institution defends in court that everyone should be jointly and severally liable for the damage caused, under the terms of the Civil Code.