Brazil’s Supreme Court sentences five coup attempt defendants to up to 26 years in prison

MADRID, December 17 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Brazil’s Supreme Court unanimously decided on Tuesday to sentence five of six defendants in the second of five groups of defendants to prison terms ranging from eight to 26 years for the attempted coup led by former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a plot that took place between 2022 and 2023.

Among those convicted is retired army general Mário Fernandes, who served as executive secretary of the presidency and received the highest sentence of the group for his role in the plot: 26 years and six months in prison. Likewise, Silvinei Vasques, then director of the Federal Highway Police, was sentenced to 24 years and six months in prison, while Bolsonaro’s former advisors Marcelo Cámara and Filipe Martins – the latter, in charge of international affairs – were sentenced to 21 years in prison.

Their convictions respond to accusations of attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, coup d’état, participation in an armed criminal organization, aggravated damage and damage to property.

For her part, the former intelligence director of the Ministry of Justice, Marília Alencar, was found guilty only of attempting to violently abolish the democratic rule of law and of coup d’état, for which she was sentenced to eight years and six months in prison.

Alencar and Vasques were forced to lose their respective public positions – respectively, delegate of the Federal Police and municipal secretary of Economic Development of the city of San José, in the state of Santa Catarina -.

Likewise, the High Court decided to suspend for eight years the political rights of all the accused, who “will not be able to vote or run for any public office”, reads the press release, which also includes a joint fine of 30 million Brazilian reals (just over 4.6 million euros) “for collective moral damage”, a fine that will be paid “with all those convicted for their participation in the events of January 8, 2023”.

On the other hand, the delegate of the Federal Police, Fernando Oliveira, was acquitted for lack of evidence against him, because, according to judge Alexandre de Moraes, investigator of the case, “even if he was aware of the facts, there is not sufficient evidence that he joined the putschist movement”.

The trial of the second group of defendants was the last of five to take place, as part of a long judicial process that brought together 1,734 criminal actions, including 619 for “more serious crimes, such as criminal organization, attempted coup d’état and crimes against the democratic rule of law”, as the Supreme Court indicates in another statement.

Thus, at the end of the judicial year, the First Chamber of the court convicted “810 people, 395 for serious offenses and 415 for less serious offenses, in addition to 14 acquittals”, we read in the text, which also reports 346 criminal cases still in the final stages of investigation and 98 charges already presented, “mostly linked to those who financed the events, which required more complex investigations”.

In this context, the main judge of the Chamber, Carmen Lúcia, considered that “it is unprecedented in the history of Brazil that the Supreme Court is called, if not to prevent, at least to make it clear that any form of aggression against democracy, democratic institutions and the democratic rule of law today has a response in accordance with Brazilian legislation.”

“And this answer will be given because there is an independent and impartial judiciary to judge all cases,” he concluded.