Autistic arrested on 8/1 by order of Moraes tries to restart life

In the pre-adolescence phase, Jean de Brito Silva underwent five years of psychotherapy at the request of the school where he studied in Juara (MT), 730 kilometers from the capital, Cuiabá. He had clear difficulties with cognitive activities, to the point of studying until high school and still today, at the age of 27, he is functionally illiterate. The treatments did not continue, as did the passages for referral to the Psychosocial Care Centers (CAPs).

Quiet, aloof from interacting with other people, Jean did not attend the sessions as recommended. Even so, in August 2022, the expert doctor José Carlos Braga Netto was able to establish a diagnosis, at the request of the family, which is trying to obtain disability retirement for Jean.

The specialist wrote: “I certify for legal purposes that the patient named above has moderate intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder, being illnesses acquired in early childhood and/or congenital, stable, that is, with no prospect of improvement, which, may incomplete mental development, made him unable to provide for his livelihood or self-determination in society, needs help from a capable person for instrumental activities of daily living”.

The family, who once lived in a canvas shack at the city dump, works collecting garbage for recycling. His parents, José Gomes Rosa da Silva and Edina Seroni de Brito da Silva, who more recently managed to buy a small farm and build a house where they live with their five children (who are between 27 and 20 years old), still haven’t managed to get him the disability retirement, made difficult after Jean’s arrest on 8 January.

Jean was often isolated. He also had the habit of leaving the house without warning. That’s what he did in December 2022, just weeks after he tried to commit suicide. He got on a bus towards Brasília (DF) to participate in the demonstrations on the 8th. “I went to Brasília to fight for my rights”, he says.

electronic anklet

“He has an illusion, he thinks he’s a firefighter, he even took a first aid course. In the midst of the confusion, during the dispersal of the protests, he tried to help a group of ladies. He never entered any of the buildings”, argues the defense attorney, Silvia Giraldelli. “He arrived in the midst of the turmoil and was leaving when he was arrested near the ramp of the Planalto Palace.” He confirms: “I didn’t go anywhere. I was on the lawn, I was arrested, nobody explained anything to me”.

The 27-year-old collector of recycled materials was then imprisoned for six months, until mid-July. His mental health condition was not enough for the prison to be relaxed. Jean finds it difficult to do her own personal hygiene, she doesn’t know how to differentiate banknotes, she can’t establish fluid communication. “The bathroom was in the cell. The food, I’m not going to lie, wasn’t good,” he reports.

He was finally released at the behest of Federal Supreme Court (STF) Minister Alexandre de Moraes, but he still needs to keep an electronic ankle bracelet on his feet – which causes discomfort. “I went back to work with my father in recycling. Now I’m fine, my family was very happy to see me,” he says. “My health improved, in prison I had a lot of coughing. But the anklet bothers”.

During their efforts to get Jean to leave the cell and respond freely, the defense even asked for a psychiatric report, prepared by experts Hewdy Lobo Ribeiro and Elise Karam Trindade, which confirmed Braga Netto’s findings.

“On the day before the trip to Brasilia, he did not report to family members or do anything different in his routine, but he simply knew that some people would go and he also went, without previously notifying his relatives, only reporting when he arrived at the destination”, reports the report, prepared based on family reports.

Produced while he was still in custody, the document also points out that Jean’s case requires care that is included in the 2012 law that defines the National Policy for the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

“Mr. Jean falls under the application of this law, based on the reports of family members and the medical documents included in this work, so that he is disabled with the need for comprehensive health care through multidisciplinary treatment, as he has diagnoses that present many needs for assistance from health”. The report also recalls that the National Council of Justice (CNJ) established, through resolution 487, the Anti-Asylum Policy of the Judiciary, which provides special attention to cases of judicially accused and who are suffering from disorders.

five charges

Jean continues to respond to a series of accusations: associating to commit a crime (with a possible prison sentence of 1 to 3 years); negotiate with the government or foreign group in order to provoke typical acts of war against the country (3 to 8 years imprisonment); trying to depose the legitimately constituted government (imprisonment of 4 to 12 years); destroy, disable or deteriorate someone else’s property (imprisonment of one to six months or fine); qualified damage (six months to three years imprisonment and fine).

“While he was in prison, all responses regarding release requests were made in a generic way. We believe that the evidence, the situations, the attached documents were not analyzed. There was no specific analysis for Jean’s case. It only gained attention when we went to the press”, explains Giraldelli. “Now he is adapting to the new routine. But he shows traces of trauma from having been detained, he suffered a series of difficulties in prison ”.

When contacted, the STF and the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) did not respond.