With the Supreme Federal Court (STF) declaring the end of the case against former President Jair Bolsonaro, his defense is considering filing a request for criminal review. The tool used to question convictions in specific cases is provided for in the Code of Criminal Procedure, but can only be introduced after the conclusion of the case and appeal. An ugly survey by GLOBO showed that forensic review had only been granted once by the STF in the past 25 years.
- On a visit to the Senate, Messias said he had not yet been received by the Colombian: “In time he will answer me.”
- Will Bolsonaro get a break? Find out if the former president will need to spend Christmas in prison
The three hypotheses considered for making an application are when new evidence emerges; When the ruling is contrary to the law or the evidence in the case; Or when it is based on false data or documents.
According to the STF regulations, a request for review must be distributed to a Minister in a different collegiate body than the one that conducted the trial. In other words, in the case of Bolsonaro, who was convicted by the first body, the review will be carried out by the second body, which includes two ministers appointed by Bolsonaro, Nunes Márquez and Andre Mendonça, as well as Luiz Fuchs, who, before the change of body, voted in favor of acquitting the former president.
Of the 351 applications received by the STF this century, only one was deemed valid, albeit partial. This happened in 2014, when the plenary session excluded from the ruling on former federal MP Natan Donadon the obligation to pay compensation for damages worth R$ 1.6 million. However, ministers maintained the 13-year prison sentence for conspiracy and embezzlement.
The rapporteur of this application is Minister Teuri Zavastski, who died in 2017. He considered that the definition of compensation for damages is based on ex post facto law.
Although Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years and 3 months in prison, he will not spend all that time in a closed system. According to the standards of Brazilian legislation, the trend is for this period to be around six years, before migration to semi-open housing. The evaluation will be made later by the court. It should take military personnel three to five years to make this transition.
The main debate around the Bolsonaro case will revolve around an aggravating factor that imposes a longer period of time in a closed system. The law stipulates that if the crime is committed with violence or a serious threat, progression to the semi-open system does not occur until 25% of the sentence is served, which in Bolsonaro’s case is equivalent to 6 years and 10 months. Otherwise, it occurs early, with 16% of the sentence completed.
The former president was convicted of five crimes, including the violent overthrow of a democratic state and an attempted coup, both of which require “violence or serious threat” as an element.
However, locked prison does not need to be completed entirely within a prison. Bolsonaro’s defense argues that the former president can serve his sentence at home, mainly due to his health.
At Wednesday’s hearings with Bolsonaro and five other convicts in the coup plot case who were arrested on Tuesday, the STF decided to maintain the group’s detention. The hearings verifying the legality of the arrests were held via videoconference and moderated by assistant judges of the court; The veracity of the accusation has not been evaluated.