Defense speaks of worsening of Torres’ psychic condition – 04/26/2023 – Power

The defense of Anderson Torres, former Minister of Justice in the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, once again asked the STF (Federal Supreme Court) to revoke his preventive detention and replace it with precautionary measures or house arrest.

This time, Torres’ lawyers claimed that the effects of imprisonment “could lead the patient to take his own life” and that, if this does not happen, “the only certainty that one has is that his mental state will tend to get worse”.

Last Monday (24), the Federal Police had canceled the ex-minister’s testimony that was scheduled for the day, after his lawyers claimed “drastic worsening” of his health.

According to the report, Torres had a “worsening of his mental health” after minister Alexandre de Moraes denied a request for his release. He has been in prison since January.

The defense maintained that a medical report made on April 10 already indicated the former minister’s risk of suicide and that a report by a psychiatrist from the public health network, last Saturday (22), recorded that “the risk of an attempt to self-extermination”.

They reported that, on the 25th, Torres presented “symptoms of emotional alteration, in an apparent anxiety crisis, crying compulsively, reporting an enormous longing for his family, especially his daughters, exposing words and ideas without connection, and exposed his discouragement with maintaining his life”. After that, he would have received medication to calm him down.

“As seen in addition, the patient’s psychic state has been gradually worsening, and there is even a concrete risk of self-extermination. In addition, it is unquestionable that the requirements for maintaining precautionary segregation appear to be absent”, says the document.

In addition, the lawyers maintained that maintaining his imprisonment, which has lasted more than one hundred days, would be seen as an anticipation of a value judgment on the merits (guilt) of the case, “which is contrary to the accusatory system, to the State of Law, the constitutional principle of the presumption of innocence and the principle of the dignity of the human person”.

In the decision in which he maintained the former minister’s arrest, Moraes said that the evidence against Torres had not changed and there were no legal reasons for its revocation or replacement by various precautionary measures.

He also pointed out alleged omissive conduct by Torres in the permanence of the protesters’ camp in the SMU (Urban Military Sector) and the risk generated by him in the coup acts of January 8. Former Minister Torres was Secretary of Security for the Federal District at the time.

Moraes added that there were testimonies of witnesses and the apprehension of documents that pointed to strong evidence of his participation in the preparation of an alleged ‘coup draft’ and in a ‘coup operation’ by the Federal Highway Police to try to subvert the legitimate popular participation in the 2nd round of the elections. presidential elections of 2022″.

The coup draft mentioned by Moraes is a proposal for a decree for then President Bolsonaro to establish a state of defense at the headquarters of the TSE (Superior Electoral Court). The objective was to reverse the result of the election in which Lula won. Such a measure would be unconstitutional. The seizure of the document by the PF at Torres’ house was revealed by Sheet.

“As if that were not enough, the applicant Anderson Gustavo Torres removed from the investigations the possibility of access to his cell phone, consequently, from the exchanges of messages carried out on the day of the coup acts and in the periods before and after; and to his electronic messages”, he said.