Moraes votes to make 200 more defendants accused by 1/8 – 04/25/2023 – Power

Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF (Federal Supreme Court), voted to open criminal proceedings against over 200 accused of participating in the coup attacks on January 8, in the early hours of Tuesday (25).

This is the second wave of trials of the 1,390 people denounced by the PGR (Attorney General’s Office) for involvement in the attacks. The analysis began to be carried out in the virtual plenary of the court in the early hours of this Tuesday (25), and is expected to end on May 2.

Ministers can follow Moraes’ vote or disagree. They can also ask for a highlight, so that the judgment is transferred to the face-to-face plenary, currently composed of ten members due to the retirement of Ricardo Lewandowski on April 11.

Moraes maintained the existence of just cause for the opening of criminal proceedings against all the accused, divided between executors and masterminds of the acts. In practice, the defendants become defendants.

The PGR did not publicize the accusations, but in demonstrations about the case, it stated that there was a set of evidence to support the accusation, such as images, messages and testimonies that reveal that there was a stable and permanent situation of an association formed by hundreds of people to attack against the institutions.

Lawyers and public defenders allege, among other arguments, the ineptitude of the complaints, stating that they are devoid of their elementary requirements, including the description of the criminal act with all its circumstances.

In his decision, Moraes refuted this thesis and said that, in crimes of this nature, “the detailed individualization of conduct encounters insurmountable barriers due to the very collective nature of the conduct”.

He said there was no doubt, however, that everyone contributed to the result, “behold, it is a joint action, perpetrated by numerous agents, directed to the same end”.

“There is no doubt that the initial accusation set out in a clear and understandable way all the required requirements, the exposition of the facts being coherent, allowing the accused to understand the imputation and, consequently, the full exercise of his right of defense, as required by this court,” he wrote.

He reiterated the defense of the competence of the STF to analyze the complaints and, if they are received, to prosecute and judge subsequent criminal action.

He also repeated the passage used in the vote to make the first one hundred defendants defendants, stating that “there will not be a democratic State of Law without State Powers, independent and harmonious among themselves, as well as provision of fundamental rights and instruments that enable the inspection and the perpetuity of these requirements”.

This Monday (24), the first round of trials for the attacks ended. By 8 votes, the ministers made defendants accused of being executors and masterminds of the acts.

Seven ministers followed the understanding of the rapporteur, Alexandre de Moraes. The two nominees of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), ministers Kassio Nunes Marques and André Mendonça, partially disagreed with Moraes and defended that only the denouncements of the alleged executors of the acts should be accepted —in the case of Nunes Marques, even so with a series of caveats.

Seven other ministers voted with Moras: Luís Roberto Barroso, Dias Toffoli, Gilmar Mendes, Edson Fachin, Cármen Lúcia, Luiz Fux and Rosa Weber.

The first part of the 8/1 denunciations is made up of 50 people investigated in the inquiry of the executors and another 50 in the action of the instigators and masterminds.

Nunes Marques and Mendonça’s first divergence was in relation to the forum of the judgment. Both assess that the action should be analyzed by the Federal Court of the Federal District, and not by the STF.

In case the competence of the Supreme Court is recognized, as it was by the majority of ministers, they argue that there are no elements to accept the complaints about those accused of being instigators and masterminds of the attacks.