PGR reinforces conviction request for those accused of 8/1 – 09/11/2023 – Power

The PGR (Attorney General’s Office) says that the “criminal purpose” of Jair Bolsonaro’s (PL) supporters was “fully widespread and known” and aimed to implement an authoritarian regime in place of a legitimately elected government.

The statement is part of the final considerations that the body attached to the first cases of January 8 included on the STF (Supreme Federal Court) plenary agenda.

Eight months after the attacks on the headquarters of the three Powers, the court scheduled for this Wednesday (13) the opening session of the trials related to the coup-related acts at the beginning of the year.

In the documents, the PGR reinforces the accusation’s points and refutes an alleged lack of individualization of criminal conduct, one of the main lines of defense for those involved.

“Despite these allegations, the evidence collected in the case argues in the opposite direction, with the materiality and authorship of the crime being demonstrated, as per the imputations attributed in the complaint”, states the Prosecutor’s Office.

The first defendants to be tried are Aécio Lúcio Costa Pereira, 51, from Diadema (SP); Thiago de Assis Mathar, 43, from São José do Rio Preto (SP); Moacir José dos Santos, 52, from Foz do Iguaçu (PR); and Matheus Lima de Carvalho Lázaro, 24, from Apucarana (PR).

The Prosecutor’s Office speaks of a robust set of evidence, made up of photos, videos, intelligence reports, records of arrests in the act and witness statements.

Lawyers and public defenders who work in criminal cases, in turn, claim that no evidence was produced that links the accused to specific damages — that is, relating the destruction of a window or the damage caused to a sculpture to a specific individual.

One of the defendants said, for example, that he entered the Planalto Palace to take shelter from the violent conflict that was taking place outside the building and that he did not contribute to the act of vandalism.

Deputy attorney Carlos Frederico Santos, appointed by Augusto Aras to coordinate the PGR’s GCAA (Strategic Group for Combating Anti-Democratic Acts) and signatory of the complaints, rules out the hypothesis that someone entered the Planalto in an “uncautious” manner, with the purpose of shelter”.

The PGR member also states that it is “irrelevant” to discriminate which property or assets a particular accused damaged or how he eventually confronted the security agents.

According to the final allegations, the processes demonstrate that the crimes attributed to Bolsonaro’s allies were consummated due to the “sum of conduct and common efforts of all”.

For Carlos Frederico, expected to be the PGR’s representative in the trials, the organization of January 8 precedes the date, which reinforces the attribution to the defendants of the crime of criminal association.

The complaints narrate that there was an initial moment of instigation of a movement against the established Powers and against the new Lula (PT) government.

The PGR says that leaders of the anti-democratic movement, extremists and public figures took part in this stage, through the massive dissemination of messages with coup content.

In the following phases, continues the Prosecutor’s Office, there was a regimentation of people willing to violently take power, the displacement of the “anti-democratic mob” to the country’s capital and, subsequently, vandalism to the headquarters of the Legislative, Executive and Judiciary.

“All with the aim of carrying out and enabling a coup d’état, with the expectation of armed state troops joining”, says the deputy attorney.

“It is important to mention that it is not required, in this regard, that everyone’s conduct be identical, as long as it falls within the line of causal development of typical punishable facts, which, regarding the imputations made in the complaint, there is no doubt about.”

The material losses calculated by public bodies affected by vandalism reach R$25 million: R$3.5 million, in the Senate; R$1.1 million in the Chamber; R$9 million in Planalto (considering only damaged works of art) and R$11.4 million in Supremo.

When the court met to deliberate on the allegations, the score in the plenary was a large majority for the opening of criminal proceedings. The expectation among court ministers is that this scenario will continue.

Kassio Nunes Marques and André Mendonça, two names nominated by Bolsonaro, differed from their colleagues when they voted in the phase of receiving the complaints.

Understand the STF’s judgment on the 8/1 defendants

When
The first four accused by 8/1 will be tried from this Wednesday (13) by the STF

Origin of the defendants
They are from Diadema (SP), São José do Rio Preto (SP), Foz do Iguaçu (PR) and Apucarana (PR)

Indictment
The defendants will be tried for armed criminal association, violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, coup d’état, qualified damage through violence and serious threat and deterioration of listed property

What the defense says
Defenders call for acquittal and cite the lack of individualization of each person’s crimes; they deny vandalism of public property and violence against security forces

2,151
Number of prisoners in the days after the attacks, according to the STF

1,341
Number of people reported by the PGR who became defendants