André Mendonça says he faces a dilemma when judging scammers – 04/24/2023 – Politics

Justice André Mendonça, of the STF, said this Monday (24) that he faces a “dilemma” when judging the group of detainees in front of the Army Command the day after the coup acts of January 8 will become defendants.

In a lecture at the IASP (Institute of Lawyers of São Paulo), Mendonça stated that it is necessary to distinguish the situation of this group from that of the 50 people who were arrested in flagrante delicto on the day of the attacks on the three Powers.

Appointed to the STF by former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), the magistrate said he will not give in to pressure and recalled that, in the trial of former deputy Daniel Silveira, accused of offending ministers of the Supreme Court, he voted for the partial conviction of the defendant, dividing the statements with political overtones from those that were intended to be aggressive.

On the 18th of this month, the Federal Supreme Court began a new stage: prosecuting and judging the more than 1,000 Bolsonaro supporters denounced for their involvement in the January 8 coup attacks.

The court began to analyze whether to open criminal proceedings against one hundred accused and whether to maintain the proceedings in the Supreme Court. Last week, the STF formed a majority to make the first 100 defendants defendants.

Minister Luís Roberto Barroso aligned with the understanding of the rapporteur, Alexandre de Moraes, and voted in favor of opening the criminal action, as well as ministers Dias Toffoli, Gilmar Mendes, Edson Fachin, Cármen Lúcia, Luiz Fux and Rosa Weber.

With that, there are already 8 votes for the initiation of the processes, out of a total of 10 possible. Missing are the votes of Mendonça himself and Kassio Nunes Marques, which need to be published this Monday.

This is the first wave of trials of the 1,390 people denounced by the PGR (Attorney General’s Office) for participating in the attacks. The analysis began to be carried out in the virtual plenary of the court on Tuesday (18), with a forecast to end next Monday (24).

Minister Alexandre de Moraes, rapporteur for the cases, was the first to present the vote.

He asked for the opening of criminal proceedings against one hundred accused of participating in the attacks and maintained the existence of just cause for the opening of criminal proceedings against all the accused, divided between executors and masterminds of the acts. In practice, the defendants become defendants.

Half of the group (50 people) targeted by this first analysis is accused by the Attorney General’s Office of inciting the animosity of the Armed Forces against the Powers, and of criminal association. The accused were arrested on the morning of January 9 in the camp set up in front of the Army headquarters in Brasília.

These defendants make up what is called by the Attorney General’s Office a group of inciters, with no direct involvement in the vandalism of the buildings.

Against the other 50 people, in the group of executors, weigh the accusations of damage to public property, criminal association, violent abolition of the democratic rule of law and coup d’état. These were arrested on the premises and in the vicinity of the headquarters of the three Powers.