Moraes ignores PGR opinion against the arrest of businessmen – 03/01/2024 – Power

Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), ignored the opinion of the PGR (Attorney General’s Office) and ordered the arrest, this Thursday (29), of businessmen from the Federal District suspected of financing coup acts on January 8 .

The magistrate ordered the arrest of Adauto Lucio de Mesquita and Joveci Xavier de Andrade in the 25th Operation Lesa Pátria, which seeks to identify people who planned, financed and incited the January 8th attacks on the headquarters of the Three Powers.

In its decision, which Sheet had access, he mentions that the PGR only partially took over the representation of the police authority, being against preventive arrests and in favor of breaches of banking, telephone and telematic secrecy.

The Prosecutor’s Office also recommended sending a letter to the company Meta for access to messages from the WhatsApp application, as well as data from other social networks.

There are two decisions that led to the operation against the businessmen this week. The first, from last November, determines their detention, despite the PGR’s recommendation. The second is from February and authorizes search and seizure of targets.

It is up to the PF to determine when the best time to execute the warrants is, but it is unusual for it to take months. According to reports, there were loose ends and investigators chose to wait.

In the case of the decision that authorized the arrests, the person in charge of the PGR was still Augusto Aras. The current attorney general Paulo Gonet only took command of the institution in December.

Moraes made ignoring the PGR almost a practice in his investigations during the period in which Aras was head of the Federal Public Ministry. Lawyers and experts in criminal law criticize the minister’s stance.

The magistrate also accepted the PF’s requests in other cases despite the prosecutors’ contrary opinion. At the end of January, in the operation that targeted federal deputy Alexandre Ramagem (PL-RJ), the PGR was against searching the addresses of the former director general’s advisor Priscilla Pereira e Silva. Moraes disagreed and kept her among the targets of the operation.

According to an investigation by the DF Civil Police cited by the minister, the businesspeople paid R$1,000 to rent the electric trio that was at the demonstration on January 8, which culminated in the coup attacks on the headquarters of the three Powers.

They would also have provided logistical support with chemical toilets, tents and food to the camp in front of the Army Headquarters, in Brasília.

The PF requested the arrest based on three points. The first is regarding financing, especially the sound car at a demonstration in October, after the elections, at the Army HQ.

“These are not mere supporters distant from the facts, but rather organizers and financiers of the crimes. They certainly provide the hiring and payment of a sound vehicle to propagate coup ideas and publish videos and photos where they call on and encourage people to participate in the movement”, says an excerpt from the document.

On a second point, the police say that Mesquita and Andrade are well-known businessmen, with respectability, who maintain thousands of employees and have economic power and the ability to influence activities such as those that culminated in the criminal episodes of January 8, according to the text. Finally, the PF cites the risk of flight.

Moraes agreed with the PF and continued the breaches of confidentiality, including those of 11 companies related to the businessmen. He also ordered the seizure of passports, suspension of registrations and seizure of weapons, if any, and cash.

The businessmen’s defense denies the accusations. On Thursday (1st), lawyer Iure Castro told Sheet that its clients respect the democratic rule of law and that it is necessary to individualize conduct. Despite having supported Bolsonaro and financing a sound car, they did not vandalize public property.

“No one in good faith who participated in the demonstration could say that it would culminate in the future with deplorable depredation that hurt us and everyone who has a democratic public spirit. This is also the feeling of Adauto, Joveci, who would never break a public glass”, he said Castro.

“It’s important that we separate the wheat from the chaff, whoever actually committed harm responds. Just because you were eventually at the demonstration, which until then was peaceful, doesn’t mean you have to be condemned for it. You have to individualize your conduct,” he added.

The businessmen did not give a statement, because the PF tried to conduct a hearing before the lawyer arrived. But he said that he has already asked Moraes and the police to reschedule the hearings, because they want to provide clarifications.