Prosecution sees lack of legal assistance to prisoner from 1/8 – 02/27/2023 – Power

The MPDFT (Prosecutor’s Office of the Federal District and Territories) instituted a procedure to monitor and supervise the provision of legal assistance to inmates in DF prisons after arrests resulting from the coup attacks on January 8.

Most of the detainees, according to the prosecutors, do not have a lawyer or received assistance only at some stage of the investigation.

Most of the accused remain behind bars after 50 days of the first arrests. According to information from the VEP (Penal Execution Rod) of the DF this Monday (27), there are 910, 605 men and 305 women.

There are 26 prisoners allocated in special prison units due to prerogatives, as is the case of former Minister of Justice Anderson Torres, former PM commanders and lawyers.

The Justice also informed that 343 people, released through the use of electronic anklets, are monitored by the district authorities. For a group of 119 investigated, follow-up was transferred to other states, places of origin of the demonstrators.

By order of Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court, at least 1,420 people were arrested in flagrante delicto on January 8 and 9 or during operations launched by the Federal Police in the following weeks.

This Monday, at an event in Florida (United States), Jair Bolsonaro (PL) defended the people arrested after the invasion and depredation of the headquarters of the three Powers.

“We have now, it will be two months, 900 people arrested, treated like terrorists. That was not found, when they were arrested, not even a penknife with them. And they are arrested. Heads of families, ladies, mothers, grandmothers”, said the ex-president.

Bolsonaro compared Brazilian history with the invasion of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, when supporters of Donald Trump invaded and vandalized the place. The former president said that in the US the “vast majority” of people respond to the process in freedom.

“In Brazil, no,” he said. “People, the vast majority, weren’t even at the Praça dos Três Poderes on that fateful Sunday, and we don’t agree with what happened there.”

Prosecutors from the MPDFT core who monitor the situation in prisons in the country’s capital carried out 15 inspections between January and February.

The group collected a series of reports with “complaints regarding the deficiency of periodic legal assistance”, stated the Public Prosecutor’s Office in a statement sent to the Sheet. The MPDFT sent letters to the public defenders of the Union and the DF to deal with legal assistance.

Sought by the report, the DPU (Defensoria Pública da União) reported that around 250 people who respond to inquiries about coup acts are being assisted by the agency. He pointed out that many defendants have private lawyers.

“Currently, 11 public defenders act in these criminal actions that were instituted within the scope of the Federal Supreme Court. The DPU acts in the provision of full legal assistance, formulating requests for freedom, presenting defensive pieces and participating in face-to-face procedural acts”, stated the body.

The DPU added that such services are provided “to the extent necessary to collect data and information from the people assisted by the institution”.

This Monday, for example, informed the agency, ten federal public defenders and one from the DF provided individual assistance to more than 120 male and female prisoners with the aim of collecting data for the defense and formulation of requests for freedom.

The Public Defender’s Office of the DF stated, in turn, that it has been operating since the date of the arrests and that there were five visits to the male prison and three to the female one.

He stressed that, although it does not have the attribution to defend prisoners when accused of federal crimes, the body has done “the provision of legal services, the inspection of human rights, the inspection of prison conditions, health, food, access to family members”.

So far, the PGR (Attorney General of the Republic) has denounced 915 people for participating in coup acts.

The majority (689), called “inciters”, were framed in two criminal categories: incitement to crime by instigating the Armed Forces against the Powers and criminal association.

Another group, of 225 people, is that of “executors”, detained in the headquarters of the three Powers on January 8 and appointed as responsible for the depredation of the buildings.

They were framed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office for the crimes of armed criminal association, violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, coup d’état and qualified damage to the Union’s property.

The Supreme and the PGR are still looking for solutions to the hundreds of criminal actions against those suspected of participating in and encouraging coup attacks. There is a consensus that, in any scenario, there will be an overload of services and a likely need to call in reinforcements.

At the STF, it showed the SheetMoraes’ interlocutors say that his initial intention was to keep the cases under the court’s tutelage, which prevents them from being stopped and without judgment —or that there are divergent decisions between the judges if they are sent to the first instance.

However, there is no team in the court that is able to handle the instruction phase of the actions, after receiving the complaints.

In this part of the proceedings, material evidence is presented, such as documents, and witnesses are heard. From there, the judge forms the conviction whether to convict or acquit the defendant.

One possibility that has been considered is the creation of a task force, with the summoning of judges, to conduct this phase of the proceedings.

DEVELOPMENTS IN THE JUSTICE OF THE COUPIST ATTACKS:

Reaction Since the coup acts in the Praça dos Três Poderes, in Brasília, a sequence of arrests and security operations has been carried out, targeting not only the executors, but the guarantors and instigators of acts of vandalism in the buildings of the STF (Federal Supreme Court), the Congress Nacional and the Planalto Palace.

Investigation The Federal Police launched Operation-Lesa Pátria, with six phases, with the intellectual perpetrators of the attacks as participating targets. Meanwhile, the PGR (Attorney General of the Republic) created special groups to investigate and seek compensation for the damage caused, and the AGU (Attorney General of the Union) asked for the blocking of R$ 20.7 million from 134 people, 5 companies and 2 entities suspected of involvement and sponsorship.

Accountability The coup demonstrators who invaded the Esplanada dos Ministérios may be charged with a crime against the democratic rule of law. If an omission is identified, authorities may also be held accountable, according to experts consulted by the Sheet.

preventive detention The majority of those incarcerated are in this prison regime, when there is deprivation of liberty in a precautionary measure to prevent the commission of new crimes, such as the escape of suspects, or the elimination of evidence to be collected in the process. The arrest, in this case, is not final, and depends on the judgment of the crime.

open orders When denouncing those involved and in other demonstrations related to anti-democratic acts, the Attorney General’s Office defended that the accused respond to the accusations in freedom, but there is still no decision by Minister Alexandre de Moraes. The magistrate has granted the benefit in specific cases so far

INVESTIGATION NUMBERS

Arrests in flagrante delicto after the acts of January 8: 1,420

Arrests in flagrante delicto converted into preventive ones: 942

Arrests in the act converted into provisional release: 343 people monitored by the Justice of the Federal District and 119 people monitored in other states

Arrests carried out by the PF in six phases of Operation Lesa-Patria: 24 preventively arrested and 3 temporarily arrested

910 people, 605 men and 305 women arrested in the act on January 8 and 9 and remain in Papuda*

Imprisoned in special units due to prerogatives: 26 people, including former Minister of Justice Anderson Torres, former PM commanders and lawyer

denounced under accusation of inciting the Armed Forces against the Powers (crimes of incitement to crime and criminal association): 689 people

225 people were reported under suspicion of direct participation in acts of invasion and vandalism to the headquarters of the Three Powers (armed criminal association, violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, coup d’état, qualified damage to the Union’s property)

1 server reported of the Senate on suspicion of omission

*Information dated February 15 from the Federal District’s Criminal Execution Court

Sources: Federal Supreme Court, Federal Police and Attorney General’s Office