STF has majority to punish 15 more defendants on 8/1 – 03/01/2024 – Power

The STF (Supreme Federal Court) formed a majority vote, this Friday (1), to convict 15 more defendants accused of being the material executors of the January 8 coup attacks. All were reported by the PGR (Attorney General’s Office).

To date, 101 people have been convicted of the attacks, with sentences ranging from 3 to 17 years. With the conclusion of the current trial, there will be 116. The PGR filed at least 1,400 complaints against those accused of the coup attacks, but some of them could benefit from criminal prosecution agreements, which would avoid trials by the STF.

The penalties for the current batch will still be defined by the ministers, who made dissenting votes. The trial, made in the virtual plenary session — a system in which ministers cast their votes electronically —, ends this Friday.

Minister Alexandre de Moraes, rapporteur of the case, proposed sentences ranging from 12 to 17 years for the 15 defendants who are currently in the virtual plenary. He voted for convictions for violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, coup d’état, qualified damage, deterioration of listed property and armed criminal association. In addition to the payment, jointly between the defendants, of a fine of R$30 million for collective moral damages.

Moraes was followed by ministers Cármen Lúcia, Flávio Dino, Dias Toffoli, Gilmar Mendes and Luiz Fux. The rapporteur stated that “the criminal acts, scammers and attacks on republican institutions led to depredation and vandalism that caused financial losses reaching tens of millions, in addition to social, political and historical losses — some even irreparable — , to be supported by the entire Brazilian society”.

The minister also stated that “the state response cannot fail to comply with the necessary proportionality in the setting of reprimands.”

“The scale of the episode prompted official demonstrations from political leaders from numerous countries, religious leaders, and international organizations, all of whom are certainly aware of the impacts that criminal conduct of this nature can have on a global scale and the fact that, unfortunately, they are not circumscribed to the Brazilian reality”, he said.

Ministers Cristiano Zanin and Edson Fachin also accompanied the rapporteur in the crimes, but differed on the penalty, proposing lesser punishments. Luís Roberto Barroso and André Mendonça partially disagreed on the crimes. The president of the STF overturned the conviction for violent abolition of the democratic rule of law.

“As I have already highlighted in similar cases, in my opinion, the objective factual circumstances described in the case file conform solely to the provisions of article 359-M of the Penal Code (Coup d’état), and not to the two criminal types simultaneously, considering the attempt of deposing the legitimately constituted government, through violence or serious threat”, said Barroso.

Mendonça voted for conviction only for the crime of violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, with a sentence of four years and two months in prison and minimum compensation for collective moral damages.

On December 18, Moraes granted provisional release to 46 prisoners on suspicion of participation in the acts. In the decision, the minister stated that the beneficiaries should wear an electronic ankle monitor, maintain nighttime home confinement and could not use social media or communicate with the other people being investigated.