The Brazilian Supreme Court opened on Wednesday the first of more than 200 trials planned against supporters of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro accused of having sacked places of power on January 8 in Brasilia. Four defendants are accused of attempted coup d’état for acts carried out a week after Lula’s inauguration as president.
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On January 8, the Supreme Court itself, but also the presidential palace and the Parliament of Brazil were attacked, in striking scenes reminiscent of the storming of the Capitol in Washington by supporters of Donald Trump. Broken windows, destroyed furniture, vandalized works of art… The damage had been considerable.
This trial marks a “ new turning point in Brazilian history “, declared prosecutor Carlos Frederico dos Santos at his opening, Wednesday September 13. “ We have turned the page on coups d’état and all those who remain attached to this idea of seizing power through violence and outside the framework of the Constitution must answer for their crimes », added the prosecutor, while the country is still marked by more than twenty years of military rule from 1964 to 1985.
The riots of January 8 occurred a week after the inauguration of left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who returned to power after two previous mandates, from 2003 to 2010. Faced with thousands of demonstrators, the police had seemed totally outdated.
So a real attempted coup d’état orchestrated by Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters or a simple act of vandalism at the heart of power? This is the backdrop to this judgment, analyzes our correspondent in Sao Paulo, Martin Bernard.
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232 trials and more than 1,000 people in the sights of justice
The Supreme Court rapporteur, Judge Alexandre de Moraes, is a hard-liner. He handed down a 17-year prison sentence against Aecio Costa Pereira, a 51-year-old man, arrested in flagrante delicto during the destruction of the Senate. He is the first of four defendants who appear before the Court, accused among other things of “ armed criminal association, violent abolition of the democratic rule of law and depredation of public places “. For Alexandre de Moraes, the crime is collective in nature. Another magistrate, Nunes Marques, appointed to the Supreme Court by Jair Bolsonaro, believes on the contrary that democracy has never been in danger. He favored a prison sentence of two and a half years.
The nine other magistrates will have to rule from this Thursday, September 14 and determine the verdict of this exemplary judgment. In total, proceedings were initiated against 232 people. The prosecution is also looking into the cases of more than 1,000 other people who could escape criminal prosecution and face fines or alternative sentences to prison.
Identify the sponsors of the attacks in Bolsonaro’s entourage
Jair Bolsonaro, recently sentenced to eight years of ineligibility for having disseminated false information about the electoral system before the vote, is under investigation aimed in particular at discovering whether he played a role in instigating the violence. The ex-president was in the United States at the time of the rampages in Brasilia. He denies any involvement and denounces “ the obsession of certains” to try to incriminate him. “ From the moment I became president, I was constantly accused of wanting to foment a coup d’état (…). But I have never acted outside the bounds of the Constitution “, he said in an interview published Wednesday by the daily Folha of S. Paulo.
He also accused the Lula government of having “ at least » let the rioters do their thing on January 8. For their part, Lula’s supporters intend to identify the sponsors in Jair Bolsonaro’s entourage.
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(and with AFP)