The biggest advantage of the project that modifies the dosimetry of convictions for coup plots, approved by the Chamber of Deputies in the early hours of this Wednesday (10), is that it is not an amnesty for criminals.
If the proposal is adopted by the senators and is not vetoed by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), the lawyers of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) — the most important example, but not the only one — will be able to request criminal review from the Federal Supreme Court. If they succeed, it is possible that the sentence handed down against the former president could be reduced from 27 years and three months to just over 20 years, a period that is not insignificant.
The duration of the closed regime prison can be reduced more sharply, from around 7 years to 3 or 4 years, depending on the interpretation of the rules. If Bolsonaro took full advantage of the work and study redemption, he would be eligible to move to semi-open status a little sooner.
The text of the project, reported by MP Paulinho da Força (Solidariedade-SP), was approved by 291 votes to 148, on a day of enormous confusion in the House due to yet another riot that the Speaker of the House, MP Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), could not manage.
In order to no longer appear lukewarm, Motta ordered the legislative police to forcibly remove MP Glauber Braga (PSOL-RJ) from the presidential chair, who had occupied it to protest his imminent dismissal. As a bonus, press work has been reduced.
The approval of the project was possible after the Bolsonaro wing gave up, at least momentarily, demanding a broad amnesty for the putschists and began to support the reduction of sentences.
Left aside was an unreasonable and politically unfeasible proposal which, for the benefit of the leaders of the attempt, compromised a more favorable outcome for the pawns who participated in the invasion of the headquarters of the Three Powers on January 8, 2023 – some of them were sentenced to frankly exaggerated sentences, of up to 17 years.
The main intervention of the rapporteur was to establish that, if the crimes of coup d’état and violent abolition of the rule of law occur in the same context, the sanctions should not be combined, as the STF did. In these cases, only the penalty for the most serious offense should be applied, increased by one-sixth to one-half.
Similar theses have been defended by many criminal lawyers and even by certain STF ministers.
Another important change was to define that perpetrators of violent crimes can move to another regime after having served a sixth of their sentence and no longer a quarter. Ironically, placing obstacles to progressions of this type was a costly flag for the hard right, including Bolsonarista.
Ultimately, the project manages to find a balance between the imperative of not amnesting the putschists, which would amount to institutional suicide, and that of allowing the excesses of certain sentences to be corrected – including that applied by the Supreme Court to the former president.
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