Coronel claims that prisoners from the Brasília HQ would be “taken by force”

The former BOPE commander who accompanied the arrest of more than a thousand people who were in the camp in front of the Brasília Army Headquarters on January 9, 2023 stated this Thursday, March 21, that everyone “would have been forcibly taken” onto buses if they had not cooperated. He also reported that he was unaware of the arrest warrant for these people, by decision of Minister Alexandre de Moraes, before forwarding them to the Federal Police (PF), and that he did not witness a crime at the location.

The statements by Colonel Carlos Eduardo Melo de Souza were given during testimony at the pre-trial hearing and trial of six criminal cases, carried out by judge Airton Vieira, Moraes’ instructor judge, and the content of the statement was disclosed by the defense of the 8/1 prisoners on the social networks. “There is proof that these people were not arrested, but kidnapped,” said lawyer Ezequiel Silveira in the publication.

According to him, the colonel’s statements show that these people “were deceived”, as someone can only be arrested by court order or in flagrante delicto. “So, if the police did not have access to the minister’s decision and did not see anyone committing a crime, the Military Police of the Federal District (PMDF), the Army and the Federal Police (PF) did not arrest these people, but kidnapped them”, he explains. . “The arrest was only given 48 hours later, and that is illegal”, he adds.

In the aforementioned statement, the colonel states that, as he did not receive the decision from Minister Alexandre de Moraes, none of those people were arrested. After all, “until then we had no information that there would be an arrest”, he stated, mentioning that the order was to dismantle the camp and take the protesters to the buses.

“They were not allowed to leave,” said the colonel

According to him, “people of all ages” were instructed to leave the location on the buses sent, without permission to take other means of transport or go to different destinations. In fact, “several people approached me and asked: ‘hey, I’m not from Brasília, and I have to catch my bus’, but they weren’t allowed to leave because the place was surrounded”, he reports.

The former BOPE commander and current PMDF deputy chief of operations also reports that the protesters peacefully accepted the “retreat”, but that those responsible for the operation were aware that they would use force if necessary. And “we couldn’t employ chemical agents in that environment, because it wouldn’t be convenient,” he said.

According to the colonel, the camp was dismantled around 10 am, and he only found out about the arrests almost four hours later. “Between 12 pm and 1 pm I was at the PF making statements with the police chief to conduct what would be the presentation of these people to the police department, and the police chief informed [da prisão].”

The colonel was asked again in his testimony if he “did not have access to the full decision before complying with it”, and reiterated that he did not. “So much so that the police chief commented to the department: ‘Did you read the decision?’, and I said I didn’t have access.”

Defense claims that the conduct of the PMDF, PF and Army amounts to “kidnapping”

For lawyer Ezequiel Silveira, these statements confirm that “the conduct of the PMDF, PF and Army constitute, in theory, the crime of kidnapping”, as the arrests were illegal, depriving hundreds of people of their freedom “through cunning means, which lead to to the victim’s deception.”

According to him, this shows “that the arrests were illegal, making the proceedings null and void” and, therefore, the defendants’ defense lawyers must mobilize to request this nullity.