the lives of 8/1 prisoners

Eight months after the arrest of 2,151 people for alleged involvement in the acts that led to the invasion and depredation of the headquarters of the Three Powers, in Brasília, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) has only three trials scheduled. About that, 128 people remain in prison and more than a thousand They are on probation with the use of an electronic ankle bracelet. “It’s as if everyone was already serving an indeterminate sentence, even before being tried and sentenced”, says criminal lawyer Hélio Garcia Hortiz Junior.

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Responsible for the case 130 prisoners who were camped in front of the barracks and who are now monitored by ankle monitor, he reports on the difficulties these people have faced. “Many are unable to work due to restricted hours to leave the house and mandatory home confinement on weekends”, says the jurist, citing beneficiaries who lost jobs with working hours on Saturdays and Sundays, and also residents of São Paulo who did not are able to work due to the mandatory time to return home: 7pm.

“Anyone who knows the traffic in the capital of São Paulo knows that you waste at least around two hours commuting, so the person would need a job that ends at 5pm, and most companies work until later”, he points out.

According to him, prisoners on provisional release are also obliged to present themselves every Monday to the judge of the district established in the investigation, which, for some, means traveling to another city and spending on transportation and food. “I have 15 customers in Pará who face around 100 to 130 kilometers of dirt road for this, three hours to go and another three hours to return”.

In addition to these difficulties with scheduling, the lawyer comments that the majority of prisoners are Christians and cannot go to church due to mandatory home confinement on weekends. “In other words, they have difficulty reintegrating into religion, returning to work and even being with their family because they cannot go out, and many are facing illnesses such as depression and panic syndrome”, he describes.

According to the criminal lawyer, many prisoners are also elderly and have poor physical health, so they deal with the worsening of these illnesses, as is the case of retired teacher Ângela Maria Correia Nunes, aged 54.

A resident of Guaíra, in Paraná, she was arrested on January 9th and was almost 10 days without the medication he uses to control lupus, a disease in which the immune system attacks the body’s own healthy tissues. “Running out of medication caused my kidneys to start failing, so two months later I ended up in the ICU and today I need to undergo hemodialysis three times a week to survive,” he told People’s Gazette.

Under treatment since the beginning of July, she traveled to the city of Toledo and did so for more than a month listening to the shrill sound of the siren on her ankle bracelet. “There are more than 100 kilometers to get there and, as I left the permitted perimeter, the ankle bracelet would go off for hours, in addition to giving a kind of shock”, laments Ângela, who asked the STF for authorization for the route several times before getting it. “And on the 11th I will need to take an exam in Curitiba, so I am trying to clear the perimeter again”, he said.

“The penalty could be a fine”, says jurist

Meanwhile, Angela also deals with other difficulties involving the use of the ankle bracelet, as the catheter in her neck and arm limit her movements and she needs help with everything, including recharging the device for three hours at the socket, daily. “And the ankle bracelet hurts, it doesn’t come off for anything and I can’t even sleep properly with it on my foot”, she says, when questioning the reason for the punishment.

“I was cooking in front of the headquarters and I didn’t even walk to the Three Powers because I can’t stand it, so why am I in this ‘private prison’ that doesn’t let me take care of my health in peace or go to church on Sunday?”, he contests .

According to lawyer Hélio Junior, the majority of prisoners like Ângela, who were in front of the Army Headquarters, in Brasília, are responsible for the crimes of incitement to crime and criminal association — Articles 286 and 288 of the Penal Code (CP) — and, in a situation of conviction for a first-time offender, they could receive a light sentence reversed into a fine.

“They are already paying without any conviction and for crimes for which it would be unimaginable for a person to wear an ankle bracelet.”

“In other words, they are already paying without any conviction and for crimes for which it would be unimaginable for a person to wear an ankle bracelet”, points out the jurist. “What is happening is really something unusual in the Brazilian criminal system”, he adds.

Another aggravating factor, according to him, is not knowing how long this will continue, since “there is no legal deadline” and many have already exceeded “the average duration of a preventive detention which, according to jurisprudence, is 180 days”.

electronic anklet wedding

As a result, those who had plans for 2023, like Rosineia da Silva Amaral from Mato Grosso, needed to adapt to the measures imposed. With the wedding party planned for this year and no trial or removal of the anklet, the young woman arrested on January 9th in the camp set up in front of the Army HQ decided to carry out the ceremony with the device on her leg during her provisional release.

The event was held on August 25th in the city of Tangará da Serra (MT) and drew attention due to another detail in the bride’s attire: the use of a veil with an image of the Brazilian flag. According to Rosineia’s lawyers, Robson Dupim and Silvia Giraldelli, the young woman thought of her wedding outfit as a form of “love for the country and the flag”.

According to her lawyers, Rosineia was detained for almost two months and was “apathetic and thin” in the prison of the Federal District Women’s Penitentiary – known as Colmeia. However, she resumed preparing for the wedding and, despite being banned from using social media and with the ankle bracelet calculating her geographic location in real time 24 hours a day, seven days a week, she tried to seek some “normality” in her routine. Thus, the dream of marriage came true.

The dilemma of the non-criminal prosecution agreement

Now, she and the other prisoners await the outcome of the process and are concerned about the proposal sent by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) to the Federal Supreme Court (STF) regarding a non-criminal prosecution agreement for 1,156 people who were camped in front of the Army barracks, in the federal capital.

According to the agency, most of these people were arrested the day after the vandalism episodes and the penalties provided for the crimes charged make it possible to reach an agreement between the accused and the Federal Public Ministry. “But they want us to confess, and I have a clear conscience that I didn’t commit any crime,” says a political prisoner from 42 years that he preferred not to identify himself.

According to him, the proposal would be the best alternative to get rid of the exhausting process he has faced since his arrest and also the monitoring with an ankle bracelet, which makes his work and caring for his family difficult.

“My work as a carpenter has decreased a lot, my wife recently had surgery and I have four children, one of whom is five years old, with autism”, he says. “But lying to get rid of the ankle bracelet goes completely against the principles I want to teach my family. So, I will continue to endure the punishments and wait for justice to prevail”, he concludes.