He Senate of Brazil will begin this Wednesday to debate the bill that could reduce the reduction 27 years imprisonment imposed on the former president Jair Bolsonaroconvicted for his responsibility as the leader of a conspiracy aimed at preventing the inauguration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as head of state.
The proposal, approved by the Chamber of Deputies last week, aims to shorten the actual length of detention by resetting penalties for various crimes, including coup d’etat. Bolsonaro, 70, has been jailed since November after being found guilty of trying to impede the incumbent president’s rise to power in 2023.
The text under discussion aims to amend the current rules, which indicate that the former president’s actual prison sentence could be eight years, but with the reform this number would be reduced to just over two years.
The initiative found members within the Bolsonaro sector, which defends the amnesty for the former president and is considered a central reference of the right and the far right in the country, even while he was locked up in a federal police cell.
Bolsonaro’s allies described the reduction in sentences as “a first step” towards total amnesty. In the House of CommonsThe project received 291 yes votes and 148 no votes and must now face the Senate, consisting of 81 senatorsan unfavorable scenario for Bolsonarism.
The text includes proposals that would bring sweeping changes to the application of penalties for coup-related crimes. One of the key points stated that when these crimes are committed by a “Crew”as happened during the attack on the institutions in Brazil The penalty could be reduced in 2023 up to two thirds regarding the original punishment.
Another relevant change to the project is the change of the Further development of the criminal regime. The new wording stipulated that convicts could move from the closed prison to the semi-open prison after serving at least one sentence one sixth of the penaltyor a quarter if the crime involved violence.
The senator Paulo Pereira defended the opposition initiative by presenting it as an act of “reconciliation” and “correction of excesses” committed in last month’s rulings by the Federal Supreme Court (STF)..
In the upper house, various parliamentarians warned of their willingness to change or reject the text. The senator, for his part Alessandro Vieiraa member of the Center Party, announced that he would vote against the proposal because it would identify him with one “Trojan Horse”” because “it drastically reduces the sentences of criminals.”
Vieria did not miss the fact that approving the project would give the project a free hand conditional release of a hundred Bolsonaro supporters, imprisoned for the events of January 8, 2023. The initiative has no supporters within the opposition and the rejection by left-wing parties and human rights organizations is based on a hidden total amnesty.
In this sense the Brazilian President Lula da Silva He spoke about the conviction of his main political rival, noting that it was “an important step” in strengthening Brazilian institutions.
(With information from AFP)
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