Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), voted this Friday (13) to reject the appeals presented by the five former members of the leadership of the Military Police of the Federal District (PMDF) who were convicted of failure to contain the coup acts of January 8, 2023. 
The appeals began to be judged this Friday (13), in a virtual environment, by the First Panel of the Supreme Court. Only Moraes, rapporteur of the case, has voted so far. The other three ministers of the collegiate – Flávio Dino, Cristiano Zanin and Cármen Lúcia – have until February 24th to vote.
Moraes rejected all of the defense’s arguments, including allegations of defense restriction and that the jurisdiction to judge crimes would lie with the Military Justice, among others.
Conviction
In December, the First Panel unanimously sentenced the military police officers to 16 years in prison and loss of public office: Fábio Augusto Vieira, former general commander; Klepter Rosa Gonçalves, former deputy general commander; in addition to colonels Jorge Eduardo Barreto Naime, Paulo José Ferreira de Sousa and Marcelo Casimiro Vasconcelos.
The collegiate understood that the defendants had committed negligent conduct during the coup acts and committed the crimes of violent abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law, coup d’état, qualified damage and deterioration of listed property.
During the proceedings, the defendants’ defense questioned the STF’s holding of the trial and stated that the defendants did not have a privileged forum. The lawyers also alleged that the defense was being restricted due to the lack of full access to the process documentation.
Complaint
In the complaint against the military, the Attorney General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet, stated that the police were aware of the intelligence information about the risk of attacks on the Three Powers on January 7th and 8th, 2023, but that the PM leadership carried out inefficient planning, “deliberately ignoring the information that there would be invasions of public buildings and violent clashes, including with individuals willing to die”.
Coup attempt
On January 8, 2023, thousands of supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro, dissatisfied with his defeat in his attempt to be re-elected, gathered at the Esplanada dos Ministérios, in Brasília, to protest.
On that occasion, hundreds of people acted violently and managed to invade and vandalize the headquarters of the Three Powers of the Republic, causing more than R$30 million in material damage, without being prevented by the DF security forces, responsible for protecting public buildings.
