The STF and the military – 02/28/2023 – Opinion

Minister Alexandre de Moraes said little more than the obvious when establishing the jurisdiction of the Federal Supreme Court to prosecute and judge crimes that occurred in the January 8 attacks on Brasília, regardless of whether those investigated were civilians or soldiers.

It is not today, after all, that the STF points out the difference between military crimes and military crimes, reserving only the latter the special jurisdiction of Military Justice.

A natural result of Article 124 of the Constitution, the distinction, which is both subtle and decisive, makes perfect sense: members of the Armed Forces must respond to military courts only when they commit an offense defined by military legislation; in other circumstances, its place is common justice.

In his decision on Monday (27th), Alexandre de Moraes merely connected the dots between that understanding and the conduct on display on January 8th. There is nothing there that justifies the presence of Military Justice, given that the crimes under investigation relate to public property and the democratic order.

Despite this well-established argument, the minister-brigadier Joseli Parente Camelo, future president of the Superior Military Court (STM), granted an interview to this Sheet to assert the correctness of the minister of the Supreme Court.

It is that, in certain sectors of the barracks and among supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), a version circulated according to which the STF would have confronted the STM.

The appeal to Manichaean logic is not surprising. It attracts, to a large extent, people who do not assess the value of democracy or understand the functioning of republican institutions, in which the world is not simply divided into good and evil.

It is the same type of wild militant that vandalized Brasília: a mob that, moved by an extremist ideology, denies the rule of law, but that does not fail to resort to it when convenient —for example, to denounce the conditions of incarceration.

There is a clear irony in the claim, but, luckily for these guys, the rule of law needs to be more generous than its enemies, otherwise it will be confused with them.

That is why Minister Moraes should accelerate the release of those pre-trial detainees who no longer represent a danger to society or investigations, concentrating efforts around the nucleus formed by leaders, financiers, recidivists and violent individuals.

If uniforms are in that nucleus, there is no way to consider their impunity. Given the high military court’s history of corporatism when it comes to judging high ranking officers, the fact that lawsuits against military personnel are under the eyes of the STF is good news.

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