Girão requests clarification on the situation of those detained for vandalism

Senator Eduardo Girão (Novo) sent letters to the Ministry of Human Rights and the government of the Federal District requesting an investigation into the situation of prisoners suspected of having participated in acts of vandalism against the buildings of the Three Powers on January 8. The letters were sent on Friday the 17th.

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Girão requested specific clarifications on the conditions of women sent to the Federal District Women’s Penitentiary. He cited cases of poor prison conditions, such as overcrowding in cells, lack of basic hygiene items, poor quality food and lack of sunbathing. The senator also alleged that, according to the reports he collected, only two meals a day are being provided to the detainees, despite the fact that four meals a day are planned.

“It is up to us, as members of the Brazilian Legislature, to oversee the proper use of public resources and ensure that the human dignity of such incarcerated individuals is respected,” said Girão, in one of the letters.

To the Ministry of Human Rights, the senator also requested clarification on the situation of the male demonstrators who are imprisoned in the Papuda Penitentiary Complex. Girão also asked for a description of the actions being carried out by the folder and requested that health and procedural issues be verified.

On Twitter, the parliamentarian even suggested that the arrests could be taking place for political reasons. “Among the 900 people [atualmente presas por possível participação nos atos], many were not even at the scene of the crime. Whoever destroyed the headquarters of the Powers must be punished with the rigor of the law, but it seems that injustice reigns in Bsb [Brasília]”, said the senator.

Other abuse reports

Denunciations of procedural abuses and poor conditions of the arrested demonstrators have multiplied since the protests took place. In January, more than 1,600 lawyers defending the accused submitted a request for action to the Federal Council of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) in relation to the detained women. In the request, the lawyers mention that the detainees were subject to an inhuman state, without communication with family members and without basic resources for feminine hygiene during the menstrual period. The OAB even met with Minister Alexandre de Moraes, who ordered the arrests, but various accusations continue to accumulate.

On February 15, a group of parliamentarians opposing the Lula government visited the two penitentiaries where men and women suspected of participating in acts of vandalism are being held in order to verify their situation.

After the visits, the parliamentarians demanded measures from the OAB and requested an audience with the president of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), Rosa Weber, to “ensure the prisoners’ guarantees and the speed of due legal process”.

Minister Nunes Marques says that arrests seem to be made “indiscriminately”

When casting a vote in relation to a habeas corpus request for prisoners for the acts of January 8 last week, Minister Nunes Marques, of the STF, criticized what he classified as “large-scale” arrests in an “indiscriminate” way.

According to the draft of the vote, the minister says that it seems to him that “the large-scale arrests, carried out indiscriminately, due to the events that occurred on 01/08/2023, investigated in Inquiry No. 4,879, and the temporal extension of incarcerations prove to be worrying and lead me to set out, from the outset, some caveats that I consider necessary”.

“Arrests in flagrante delicto and the eventual conversion into preventive arrests or precautionary measures other than imprisonment necessarily require the precise identification of those responsible for the criminal offenses that occurred on 01/08/2023 and the individualization of their respective conduct”, he said in another snippet.

He amended by saying that, if necessary, one should “always verify the possibility of adopting the alternative measures referred to in art. 319 of the CPP [Código de Processo Penal]when sufficient and appropriate for the case”, which has not been adopted by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, who ordered the arrests.