Just to clarify in a sentence trial#

Just to clarify in a sentence trial#

Three of the defendants followed the trial by videoconference from prison the fourth, who was bailed, asked to be present in court, but the request was denied.įormer president Bolsonaro, who was in the U.S. The crimes they are charged with, like hundreds more of the defendants, are violent abolition of the rule of law, coup d’état, armed criminal association and damage to property. They are aged between 24 and 52 and come from cities in the states of São Paulo and Paraná. The defendants in this first trial - an IT civil servant, a forestry engineer, and two deliverymen - were not in the courtroom Wednesday. “We want to show the world that Brazil is no longer a banana republic, that it is a state that takes the rule of law seriously, that coups d’état are a closed page in our history,” said Santos, who added that “fake news is still circulating and we have to clarify once and for all.” The Prosecutor’s Office and the investigating judge in the case, Alexandre de Moraes, have made it clear that they intend to impose exemplary sentences on the most violent protestors among the mob with a view to dissuading any further attacks on Brazilian democracy. In a country where the rights of the accused enjoy considerable protection, almost 130 people have already been imprisoned for eight months for the January 8 assault. The four defendants face sentences totaling up to 30 years in prison and fines for moral damages of 100 million reais ($20 million) if found guilty.Īround 1,300 people have been charged in the Supreme Court macro-case, which is advancing at breakneck speed. “They attempted to depose a legitimately elected government under the pretext of electoral fraud,” said Deputy Attorney General Carlos Frederico Santos, in his opening statement. The prosecution accuses them of an attempted coup d’état against the leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who had been in power for a week at the time. Proceedings started with four defendants arrested in flagrante delicto on January 8, part of the Bolsonarista shock troops on that day. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court convened to hold the first trial against the coup plotters. Waving the national flag, the protestors also took over Congress and the presidential Palácio do Planalto in Brasília, in the most serious attack against Brazilian democracy since the military dictatorship (1964-1985).

Capitol two years earlier, Brazil’s Supreme Court was invaded by a violent mob of supporters of outgoing president Jair Bolsonaro.

On January 8, 2023, in scenes reminiscent of the storming of the U.S.