The First Panel of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) heard this Wednesday (12), in an extraordinary session, the last four defenses of the defendants from Core 3 of the coup plot who tried to keep former president Jair Bolsonaro in power, even after being defeated at the polls, in 2022. 
As a result, all ten defendants’ defenses were heard for at least one hour by the First Panel.
The trial was suspended until next Tuesday (18), when the rapporteur, Minister Alexandre de Moraes, is expected to present his vote, being followed by the other ministers that make up the collegiate: Cristiano Zanin, Flávio Dino and Cármen Lúcia.
The prosecution also presented its arguments for an hour. The Attorney General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet, highlighted plans to monitor and kill authorities who were found during the investigation.
For him, the acts carried out by Nucleus 3 show the “homicidal intentions” of the coup plot.
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Defenses
This Wednesday (12), lawyer Jeffrey Chiquini, said that the investigation and prosecution in the case were flawed because they failed to establish that his client, Lieutenant Colonel Rodrigo Bezerra de Azevedo, had no connection with the Bolsonarist plot.
“One of the greatest authorities in special forces in Brazil is in prison because the irresponsible delegate did not investigate him”, stated the defender, pointing to the soldier, the only defendant who personally attended the trial.
Chiquini maintained that Azevedo’s only connection with the plot was the fact that he picked up, after the facts highlighted in the complaint, a new functional cell phone, and that, coincidentally, it was the same one used by the codename Brazil in conversations about the Copa 2022 operation, which would have the objective of neutralizing authorities.
The PF concluded that Azevedo was from Brazil because he had placed a chip registered with his own CPF in the same cell phone used by his codename, weeks after the alleged operation.
For the lawyer, however, this was precisely the intention of those who dispensed the device in the same department to which the lieutenant colonel had just been transferred.
“It is obvious that he is innocent, he put his own CPF on his cell phone and used it for six months,” said the defender. “He did not know that this cell phone was of illicit origin,” he added, pointing out that several agents who would have gone to the field have not been identified to this day.
Likewise, the defense of Lieutenant Colonel Ronald Ferreira de Araújo Júnior tried to separate him from any involvement in a coup d’état. According to the accusation, the soldier was one of the authors of a letter to pressure Army commanders to join the coup movement.
For lawyer Lissandro Sampaio, however, there is no evidence in the file that links him to Nucleus 3 of the plot. “He did not participate in any bar conversation, in any meeting at anyone’s house,” he said.
The defense pointed out that the only evidence against him was a message with a link to a pressure letter to Army commanders, which he sent to journalist Paulo Figueiredo. The lawyer pointed out that he did not approve and did not sign the document.
It was the same line followed by the defense of Lieutenant Colonel Sérgio Cavallieri de Medeiros. Lawyer Igor Laboissière Vasconcelos Lima emphasized that his client did not sign such a document either, which he forwarded to two people. “Is this enough to sentence him to so many years in prison, for such serious crimes?”, he asked.
The lawyer also sought to disregard messages of coup content that were found on the soldier’s cell phone, in which he spoke about killing minister Alexandre de Moraes and other authorities.
“Although they may be immoral, repudiable, abject, disgusting… to say that Sérgio Cavallieri is a coup leader is to be detached from the facts investigated”, he stated.
Finally, the defense of federal police officer Wladimir Matos Soares also stated that the Federal Police failed in the investigation, misleading the PGR. The defendant was accused of having leaked, during the government transition in 2022, information about the security scheme of then-elected president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“He does not know any of the defendants, he is not mentioned in any minutes, spreadsheets, the parties involved said they do not know Wladimir,” said lawyer Sergio Wiliam Lima dos Anjos.
The following researchers are part of this nucleus:
- Bernardo Romão Correa Netto (colonel);
- Estevam Theophilo (general);
- Fabrício Moreira de Bastos (colonel);
- Hélio Ferreira Lima (lieutenant colonel);
- Márcio Nunes de Resende Júnior (colonel);
- Rafael Martins de Oliveira (lieutenant colonel);
- Rodrigo Bezerra de Azevedo (lieutenant colonel);
- Ronald Ferreira de Araújo Júnior (lieutenant colonel);
- Sérgio Ricardo Cavaliere de Medeiros (lieutenant colonel);
- Wladimir Matos Soares (federal police officer).
Check out the information from Repórter Brasil Tarde, from TV Brasil
Other cores
To date, the STF has already convicted 15 defendants for the coup plot. There are seven convicts from Nucleus 4 and eight more defendants who belong to Nucleus 1, led by former president Jair Bolsonaro.
Core 2 will be judged from December 9th.
Nucleus 5 is formed by businessman Paulo Figueiredo, grandson of the former president of the dictatorship João Figueiredo. He lives in the United States, and there is no date for the trial.
