Amnesty projects gain momentum after act but depend on Centrão

After the pro-Bolsonaro act on Avenida Paulista, on Sunday (25), several bills that provide for amnesty for those arrested in the demonstrations on January 8, 2023 may gain support to move forward in both the Chamber and the Senate. This is because the defense of amnesty was one of the most important points of the former president’s pacification speech, which showed political strength by taking hundreds of thousands of people to the demonstration.

Parliamentarians heard by People’s Gazette They said they believe that amnesty will be possible, especially if deputies and senators who currently vote with the government, but are from parties more to the right and center, the so-called Centrão, adhere to these agendas. Many of them may embrace the project to later take advantage of Bolsonaro’s political capital.

Deputy leader of the opposition in the Chamber of Deputies, Maurício Marcon (Pode-RS) is adamant in stating that the support of the hundreds of thousands of people who filled Paulista to hear the former president could convince parliamentarians from the center to defend agendas of right-wing interest, such as amnesty, which was mentioned by Bolsonaro.

“The center, which likes to stay in the shadows and [ontem] was exposed, it could start to create shame and help free the innocent people who are imprisoned”, stated Marcon. In the deputy’s opinion, the Centrão could be forced to turn its gaze towards the more conservative voter, who is keeping an eye on the political scene , and will demand this from the parliamentarians he helped to elect.

At least 6 amnesty bills are being processed in Congress

In the Chamber of Deputies, at least 5 projects that deal with amnesty for those arrested during the acts of January 8 last year were added to another already existing one, authored by the former leader of the Bolsonaro government, Major Vitor Hugo (PL-GO ), which provides amnesty for anyone who has participated in demonstrations anywhere in the country, from October 30, 2022 until the day the law comes into force. But the projects were grouped together and now have deputy Sâmia Bomfim (PSOL-SP) as rapporteur, who has already spoken out and defended the unconstitutionality of the proposals in the Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ). The vote has not yet taken place.

Shortly after Jair Bolsonaro’s speech, who stated on Sunday that he was seeking pacification and “putting an end to the past”, the deputy made posts on social media criticizing the pardon.

“I am the rapporteur at the CCJ of the Chamber of the project presented by the extreme right that intended to pardon Bolsonaro and his cronies for the attempted coup. The report I presented rejects this ridiculous attempt to prevent the January 8 terrorists, their mentors and financiers from paying for their crimes. Especially Bolsonaro, the generals and parliamentarians involved”, said the deputy on X (formerly Twitter).

As stated by Samia in the publication, there is no rubber that can erase the attempted coup d’état and other crimes. For the deputy, what is desired is that participants are responsible for their actions in accordance with the law. As soon as possible, we want one by one to respond within the strictness of the law.

For deputy Cabo Gilberto Silva (PL-PB), author of one of the proposals that seeks to amnesty prisoners who had no proven participation in the acts, approving the amnesty means doing justice, since many did not even have an arrest warrant, in addition to Many trials did not respect due legal process. “People were arrested and are getting 17 years in prison, they are paying without having to,” said the deputy, who said he does not defend those who vandalized public property.

But the deputy denies the PT’s claim that the proposal would benefit former president Jair Bolsonaro himself. Members of left-wing parties claim that the former president is defending amnesty “legislating for his own sake”.

Even with an unfavorable report from the PT deputy, the amnesty can still be approved if it obtains a majority in the Chamber.

Mourão has been defending amnesty for January 8 prisoners in the Senate

In the Federal Senate, the former vice president, General Hamilton Mourão (Republicans – RS), also presented a project proposing the pardon of protesters arrested on January 8 for the crimes of coup d’état and violent abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law. The text is today at the Commission for the Defense of Democracy, and is reported by PT senator Humberto Costa (PE), who has not yet commented on the topic.

Parliamentarians close to the senator, however, assess that the tendency, as in the Chamber, is that the report is not favorable to the proposal, and also in this case the alternative would be to approve the project by a majority vote of parliamentarians. To the newspaper Value, the senator said he is “fighting” for the proposal to move forward. If this is not possible, the alternative would be to bet on a proposed amendment to the Constitution presented by senator Márcio Bittar (União-AC), which is being processed by the Senate’s Constitution and Justice Committee.

The PEC seeks amnesty for those accused and convicted of the demonstrations on January 8, in Brasília, and former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was declared ineligible for abuse of political power, misuse of the media and conduct prohibited by authorities in elections.

For lawyers, amnesty proposals may even prosper, but they will come up against the STF

In the opinion of lawyer Fernando Neisser, from the Brazilian Academy of Electoral and Political Law (Abradep), serious crimes against the Democratic Rule of Law should not obtain amnesty from Congress, but if a law in this sense is approved, it will certainly be vetoed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Even if the veto is overturned, as has occurred in other approved matters, “it is expected that the STF would recognize its unconstitutionality. The current legal regime is not the one that existed at the time of the Amnesty Law that followed the military dictatorship. Therefore, , only people convicted of lesser crimes, such as damage to public property, could in theory benefit”, explained the lawyer.

For criminal lawyer Henrique Attuch, from the Brazilian Institute of Criminal Sciences (IBCCRIM), in some cases of bills that provide for amnesty to anyone who is subject to conviction or prosecution due to what happened in Praça dos Três Poderes, even without having set foot in Brasília, the former president can be helped. “Bolsonaro could benefit from the projects in question, even if he is investigated as the mastermind or instigator of the attacks”, he pointed out.

But despite this, the lawyer does not believe that these projects have enough strength today. “It turns out that the political obstacle is gigantic, given the degree of discomfort that the approval of the projects could generate with the Federal Supreme Court (STF), not to mention the fact that, according to the Constitution, the amnesty, even if approved , would depend on presidential sanction”, he recalled.