BRASÍLIA – After more than a year of pressure from Bolsonaro and under protest from the left, the Chamber of Deputies approved the bill which reduces the sentences of those involved in the January 8 attacks and who can benefit former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL). The proposal will now be processed in the Senate.
Approval of the appeal Dosimetry invoice It was a score of 291 to 148 in the early hours of Wednesday 10. The result was announced at 2:27.
The text “grants amnesty to participants in politically motivated demonstrations” occurring between October 30, 2022 and the date of entry into force of the law.
The long period extends from the coup camps erected after Bolsonaro’s electoral defeat and the insurrection which culminated with the attacks on the buildings of the Three Powers on January 8, 2023.
In other words, the amnesty benefits all the leaders who were accused within the STF in the coup plot trial, including generals and former ministers in the Bolsonaro government, as well as Bolsonaro supporters who camped in front of the army headquarters and participated in the attacks on Praça dos Três Poderes.
The rapporteur of PL Dosimetry in the Chamber of Deputies, Paulinho da Força (Solidariedade-SP) said the proposed sentence reduction is limited to those convicted of the January 8 coups. The statement came during a vote on the proposal in plenary in the early hours of Wednesday.
“This text was drawn up by a group of jurists, one of the most important in Brazil,” declared the rapporteur. “I would like to point out that it only concerns January 8. There is no possibility that this text will benefit common law crimes.”
The project could reduce Bolsonaro’s sentences from 27 years and three months in prison to 20 years, according to the rapporteur. Thus, the duration of the closed regime would go from six years and ten months to two years and four months; from there, he could progress to a less restricted regime.
“In my opinion, in this project that we are going to vote on today, we are reducing a part at the top, so, as we add sentences, we are reducing (the total sentence) to 20 years and seven or eight months. So, to be clear, what I am reducing is not from 27 years to two years and four months,” Paulinho said earlier.
The former president was condemned by Federal Court (STF) in September for attempted coup d’état and four other crimes, and has been serving his sentence since November 25. The trial of the other defendants is still taking place in court.
The project was put to a vote amid protests from the left. The leader of the PSOL, Talíria Petrone (RJ), declared that “putting the issue of amnesty on the agenda is an attack on our fragile democracy.” The leader of the PT, Lindbergh Farias (RJ), declared that it was “absurd that the vote took place in the middle of the night”.
“At 11:38 p.m., you are voting on an issue of extreme importance. At least have the courage to vote during the day, in the sunshine. This House embraces the coup,” Lindbergh told Motta. Government supporters attempted to remove the bill from the agenda, but were defeated by 294 votes to 146 in favor of remaining.
Tonight’s vote is a victory for Bolsonarism. Amnesty for Bolsonaro supporters involved in the series of events known as the coup plot has become the right’s greatest obsession in recent years and has even been proposed by Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP), deputy in self-exile in the United States, as a condition for the lifting of the Trump administration’s sanctions against Brazil.
Although Bolsonaro, his children and his main allies have spent recent months defending intransigence in a “broad, general and unrestricted” amnesty, they now believe that the text found by Paulinho is the possible solution.
“I have been the biggest critic of the strategy of approving a reduction in sentences before a broad, general and unrestricted amnesty. But, at this moment, I recognize that we have no other better option. If I were in Congress, I would vote for and continue to fight for the amnesty”, published Tuesday the communicator Paulo Figueiredo, right-hand man of Eduardo Bolsonaro in the United States.
Figueiredo’s position aligns with that of the main leaders of Bolsonarism. At a closed-door meeting at Liberal Party headquarters earlier, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), designated spokesperson for his father and candidate to succeed him in the elections, requested the commitment of his supporters to approve the proposal.
Previously, after visiting Bolsonaro in prison, he said that this issue distressed his father, since “President Bolsonaro himself heard from Hugo Motta (President of the House) and Davi Alcolumbre (President of the Senate) the promise to organize amnesty.” He advocated orienting Paulinho’s text in any way, so that the plenary can decide.
The leader of the PL in the House, Sóstenes Cavalcante (RJ), said Bolsonaro had asked the judiciary to vote in favor of the project from prison. He was present at the meeting with Flávio and the party’s federal headquarters.
“We are not going to give up on amnesty, but right now this is the step we have to take, authorized by President Bolsonaro, who is making a self-sacrifice. He himself advised, through his spokesperson Flávio Bolsonaro, to vote to reduce the sentences,” Sóstenes told reporters after the meeting. He repeated the information in the early morning.
The vote on the Dosimetry project stirred the minds of the left. The Government House Leader, José Guimarães (PT-CE), declared that the proposal “breaks with the entire process of affirming democracy” and that “putting dosimetry on the agenda is a historic error”. The senator Humberto Costa (PT-PE) described this issue as “a shame that attacks the country”.
This Tuesday afternoon was marked by unrest and attacks in the Chamber of Deputies. THE Federal deputy Glauber Braga (PSOL-RJ) occupied the chair of the President of the Chamber, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), in protest. against the possible revocation of his mandate and the Dosimetry project.
“The amnesty for the January 8 putschists is already supposed to lead to a reduction in Jair Bolsonaro’s sentence to two years (…) I will stay here calmly, with complete peace of mind, exercising my legitimate political right not to accept as a fait accompli the amnesty for a group of putschists, a reduction in the sentence of two years for Bolsonaro,” declared Braga, before announcing that he would remain seated in the chair.
The protest turned into confusion when the Legislative Police forcibly removed Braga from the Board of Directors. The MP as well as his parliamentary colleagues and journalists were injured during the push towards the Green Room, outside the plenary. Braga’s allies insisted that the session be postponed, but Motta stood by his decision.
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