Sentenced to 14 years, housewife hopes for new trial

Since her case was publicized by Gazeta do Povo last week, Jupira Silvana da Cruz Rodrigues, 57, has received support and a voice. “People are visiting me and many people have sent messages to senators, deputies and ministers about my situation”, reports the Minas Gerais native, who still wears an electronic ankle bracelet, is obliged to present herself at the forum weekly and is prohibited from speaking out. on social networks.

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“I can’t speak there, but many are speaking for me, so I want to thank each one”, he said in an interview with Gazeta do Povo, also citing the attitude of the Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) André Mendonça, who asked last Monday (2) for the trial to be in person. This request prevented Ms. Jupira from being condemned in a virtual plenary session to 14 years of sentence and the payment of compensation for collective moral damages in the amount of R$30 million of reais — amount that must be divided between those sentenced.

In his request, Mendonça argued that “it is important to examine the case with greater detention” due to the “factual peculiarities and personal circumstances of the accused”. The action is an attempt to individualize the conduct of the 8/1 defendants and the sentences they received, a “constitutional principle”, and makes the defense lawyer speak in person at the trial. The same emphasis was given by the minister to community agent Nilma Lacerda Alves, who also already had a majority of votes in the STF for the same conviction.

“I was praying that the virtual process would be suspended and we would have the chance and time to show the truth to the population”, reported Jupira, who is now awaiting the date for the in-person trial in front of the 11 ministers.

What happened to her on 1/8?

According to her, she joined the Liberal Party (PL) in 2011, but the fight for family and children began much earlier. “My main focus has always been children because I am a mother, a grandmother, and I can’t stand to see evil against little ones”, says the Minas Gerais native, who participated in the demonstrations held in Brasília in an attempt to fight for a better country for future generations.

“I went other times and it was always very peaceful, with prayers and hymns. If I had imagined what was going to happen on 8/1, I would never have gone,” he says, telling us a little about what he experienced that day. “Many people had left before, and I was in the second or third wave that left the camp,” he remembers.

Furthermore, she informs that everyone went through a search with metal detectors to remove any item considered dangerous. “Even nail pliers were seized”, she recalls, stating that her suitcase contained clothes and a bottle of water. “The one they found with my fingerprints and those of another boy because I offered it to a young man to take when I saw him feeling sick.”

Still according to her, the walk to the lawn was long and there was no place to protect herself. “So when the police started throwing bombs [de gás lacrimogênio] In us, everyone, that mass, started looking for shelter, and there were a lot of people. The cameras could show everything, if they were revealed.”

Amidst the confusion, Jupira says he entered the nearest building, and the scenes he experienced there were frightening. “There were a lot of people vomiting, our eyes were burning, and we couldn’t breathe properly due to inhaling the gas,” he recalls, stating that the police continued to shoot rubber bullets at people. “So much so that the windows were intact when I arrived, but they were broken by those shots.”

“So much so that the windows were intact when I arrived, but they were broken by those shots”

In fact, a scene that remains in her memory is that of a man she saw kneel before the police, wrapped in the Brazilian flag and asking the military not to shoot. “The flag turned red with blood, and I just wanted to get away from there.”

Given the situation, even knowing about the bombs outside the building, she claims that she tried to leave the place three times, but was stopped by the police force. “I was forced to stay inside, avoiding rubber bullets while trying to help people who needed it, like the boy who had a seizure and drank water from my bottle.”

After seven months in prison, he was released preventively with an ankle bracelet

Jupira was arrested within Planalto and spent seven months in the Federal District Women’s Penitentiary, known as Colmeia.. “My son got married on January 21st and I was unable to participate, a psychological trauma that I will carry forever”, laments the Minas Gerais native, remembering that she spent that date in prayer with the other inmates of 8/1.

She also did not have the opportunity to monitor the growth of her youngest grandchild, now one year old, and learned that her five-year-old granddaughter even thought she had died. “I really disappeared, and that hit her hard.”

Now, Jupira is on parole with an electronic ankle bracelet and all his bank accounts remain blocked. “In fact, I am the curator of a boy with an irreversible mental disorder who lost his mother when he was run over by a car, and even the death benefit he receives was stopped because it was in my name”, she reveals. “We are suffering a lot without me having committed any crime.”

“I am the curator of a boy with an irreversible mental disorder who lost his mother when he was run over by a car, and even the death benefit he receives was stopped because it was in my name”

She also talks about her weekly trips to the city courthouse to present herself to the judge — a rule imposed on 8/1 prisoners. According to the housewife, the situation brings her immense sadness, as she always entered the place as a “good person” to act as a juror. “And for you to be a juror you have to behave honestly, coherently, and I have participated here in Betim (MG) many times”, she states, mentioning that today she is forced to hear the metal detector beeping due to wearing an ankle bracelet.

“Other than that, I can’t sleep anymore, I have appointments with a psychiatrist to deal with everything and I have seen my eldest grandson, who is nine years old, devastated and asking myself all the time when I am going to take this away. I just say it will be soon”, says the elderly woman, when asking for justice.

“There are so many criminals who have their rights protected by human rights defenders, but I, who am not a criminal, lost all my rights, and no one says anything. I want the truth to be heard, nothing more than the truth”, asks Ms. Jupira.