Moraes: It is not up to Bolsonaro to choose a date to speak to the PF – 02/19/2024 – Power

Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), maintained the testimony of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) about suspected participation in a coup plot for next Thursday (22), as subpoenaed by the Federal Police .

Bolsonaro’s defense had signaled that he should not speak. The former president’s lawyers told the Supreme Court this Monday (19) that he chose “not to give statements or provide additional statements” until he has full access to media seized in the PF’s investigations and the testimony of Mauro Cid, who was his assistant. of orders.

“The Federal Constitution enshrines the right to silence and the privilege against self-incrimination, but not the ‘right of prior and generic refusal to comply with legal determinations’ to the person under investigation or defendant, that is, they are not permitted to previously and generally refuse to participate of future procedural or procedural acts, which may be legally established within due legal process”, said Moraes, in his decision.

“Therefore, the investigated party is not justified in stating that full access to all the steps taken and evidence included in the files was not guaranteed, nor is it up to him to choose the date and time of his interrogation.”

Moraes said that the former president’s lawyers have already had “full access to the evidence already documented in the files”, except in relation to the ongoing investigations and Mauro Cid’s accusation.

The minister, by not granting access to the complaint, says that jurisprudence “consolidated the understanding that, before receiving the complaint, the denial of access to the terms of the award-winning collaboration regarding ongoing investigations does not constitute a restriction of defense.” .

According to Moraes, “the person being investigated does not have a subjective right to access information associated with investigations in progress or in the deliberation phase.”

In addition to Bolsonaro, the PF called to give statements all the people who were the target of search and seizure in the Tempus Veritatis operation, launched on the 8th, to investigate the case.

This includes Valdemar Costa Neto, president of the PL, general Walter Braga Netto, former minister of the Civil House and former candidate for vice president, general Augusto Heleno, former minister of the GSI (Institutional Security Office), general Paulo Sérgio Nogueira , former Minister of Defense, General Estevam Cals Theophilo Gaspar de Oliveira and Almir Ganier, former Navy commander.

Bolsonaro’s lawyers had told Moraes that the decision that authorized Operation Tempus Veritatis contains “excerpts of alleged conversations present on cell phones seized throughout this investigative procedure, media to which the defense has not had access to date.”

“Complete access to these elements is crucial to guarantee the exercise of your right to defense ―and even to respond to the public―, in an adequate and effective manner”, said the piece, signed by Paulo Bueno, Daniel Tesser and Fábio Wajngarten .

“[Bolsonaro] has every interest in fully cooperating with the investigation and proving his innocence, however his choice at this moment is not just about safeguarding the right to silence, but, primarily, about preserving the scope of the right to full defense, the full exercise of which is being hindered for the retention of crucial elements for understanding the facts”, added the defense.

“Such elements, if made available in their entirety, could even contribute significantly to proving the innocence of the petitioner [Bolsonaro] and the clarification of the real truth, an essential principle in a fair and democratic society, based on the pillars of the Rule of Law.”

During the operation on the 8th, investigators also arrested former advisors of the former president and forced Bolsonaro to hand over his passport.

The investigation is one of the main setbacks for Bolsonaro in the judicial siege he has faced since leaving the Presidency in December 2022.