Owner of bus detained after 8/1 says she also takes PT supporters – 02/19/2023 – Politics

Flecha Tur, a company from Mato Grosso that owns a bus seized after the January 8 coup attacks, says it rented the same vehicle days before for PT members to travel to Brasília to attend the inauguration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

The company also claims that another vehicle owned by it had already transported PT militants to the Lula Livre vigil, set up in front of the Federal Police in Curitiba, where the current President of the Republic was arrested due to Operation Lava Jato.

Like other owners of retained vehicles, Flecha Tur asked Justice Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), for the return of the car, and has been waiting for a decision since last month.

Companies claim that they were contracted to provide a service and claim damages with stopped buses. Sought, the minister’s office did not respond.

The Flecha Tur bus was seized by the Federal Highway Police in Sorriso (MT), after ordering Moraes to detain all vehicles that took supporters of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) to the demonstration that culminated in the destruction of the headquarters of the three Powers .

The company claimed in the request to the minister, according to lawyer Reinaldo Ortigara, that its owners did not contribute to the occupation and depredation of public buildings, did not participate in crowds in front of barracks and did not incite any manifestation.

Flecha Tur said it operates “without ideological or partisan overtones”, giving everyone “equal treatment regardless of gender, race, religion or political orientation”.

An example of this conduct, according to Ortigara, was the transportation of Lula supporters to the PT’s inauguration in his third term. Included in the appeal sent to the Supreme Court, he said, were photos of PT members from Mato Grosso in front of the bus that was seized.

The company also reproduced a handwritten letter, dated January 10, in which a representative of the PT’s regional directory declared that the services provided between December 31 and January 2 to Lula’s supporters were calm and respectful.

“The company operates without partisan passion,” said Ortigara to Sheet. “There was even some difficulty in hiring transport for the inauguration. Some businessmen refused to take PT members to Brasília. This was not the case with Flecha Tur.”

Flecha Tur informed Moraes in the request that, in early January, the company was contacted by Alfredo Acácio Nuernbeg, an agribusiness entrepreneur and one of the articulators of the Green and Yellow Movement in Mato Grosso, interested in transporting passengers to Brasília.

Sought by the report, Nuernberg said that it does not proceed. The company, however, claims to have information that the businessman hired the freight.

The vast majority of Bolsonaro supporters arrived in the federal capital by bus. On the day of the attack, the Federal Highway Police seized 30 vehicles in the DF alone.

Apprehensions also occurred in other parts of the country. A list provided by ANTT (National Land Transport Agency), responsible for overseeing economic activity, with all buses that entered the DF between January 5th and 9th, helped in this work.

The Flecha Tur bus was not on the agency’s list, but the PRF was able to identify it after retrieving images from road monitoring systems.

According to the company’s defense, Bolsonaristas who used the Flecha Tur bus left Tangará da Serra (MT) on the 7th and arrived in Brasília the following morning, around 8:30 am.

The company alleges that it did not take any action to prevent, obstruct or hinder the passage of vehicles on public roads in the country’s capital.

He also states that, after disembarking Bolsonaro supporters, the bus returned to Mato Grosso, arriving in Cuiabá around 2 am on the 9th.

On the same date, at 2 pm, the bus would have gone to Sinop (MT), where it would pick up passengers and take them to Paraguaçu Paulista (SP). It was on this route that there was an interception by the federal road police.

The AGU (Advocacy-General of the Union), the body that legally represents the federal government, asked the Justice to convert the precautionary action (urgent measure) that blocked the assets of those suspected of financing the chartering of buses for coup acts into a process that guarantee the final condemnation of reimbursement to the public coffers.

The amounts of this compensation are R$ 20.7 million and were calculated based on the losses indicated by the Supreme Court, the Planalto Palace, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

The request awaits decision of the Federal Court of the Federal District. The AGU says, in the action, that it is an illegal act when someone who has the right to free demonstration and peaceful assembly “manifestly exceeds the limits imposed by its economic or social purpose, by good faith or by good customs”.

“In a democratic regime, as in the Brazilian system, it goes against the customs of democracy and good faith to call and finance a movement or demonstration with the intention of taking power, a situation that highlights the illegality of the event that occurred”, says the lawyer .