The defense of Walter Souza Braga Netto, retired Army general, former Minister of Defense and Civil House of Jair Bolsonaro’s government, released a statement this Saturday (23) saying that the general maintains loyalty to the former President of the Republic. “During the last government, he was one of the few, among civilians and military personnel, who maintained loyalty to President Bolsonaro until the end of the government, in December 2022 and maintains it to this day, out of belief in the same non-negotiable values and principles.”
Lawyers Luís Henrique César Prata, Gabriella Leonel Venâncio and Francisco Eslei de Lima, from the firm Prata Advocacia (based in Brasília), sign the note from Braga Netto, who was a candidate for vice president on Bolsonaro’s ticket, defeated in the October elections 2022.
Braga Netto is one of the 37 indicted last Thursday (21) by the Federal Police in the investigation into “criminal association, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law and coup d’état”. The PF found that one of the meetings to deal with an alleged coup plot to prevent the inauguration and kill President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, and Minister Alexandre de Moraes (STF) would have been held at Braga Netto’s house in November 2022.
When posting the note on his profile on the social network X, Braga Netto states that “it was never a scam, much less a plan to sign someone. Now part of the press comes up with this fanciful and absurd thesis of a ‘coup within a coup’. Let there be creativity…”
On the day of the indictment, Braga Netto’s defense complained about the lack of access to the report delivered by the Federal Police to Minister Alexandre de Moraes and criticized the leak of information from the document to the press.
Read the full note below:
The technical defense of General Walter Souza Braga Netto vehemently repudiates the creation of a fanciful and absurd thesis in part of the press that there would be “a coup within a coup”.
Despite the silence of many institutional sectors of our society, General Braga Netto, former Minister of Defense and Civil House, Army General who commanded troops of the Eastern Military Command in RJ, the unprecedented Federal Intervention in the area of Public Security in State of RJ and was Chief of Staff of the Army highlights that throughout his career, he always excelled in ethical and moral correctness in the search for legal and constitutional solutions.
Remember, also, that during the last government he was one of the few, among civilians and military, who maintained loyalty to President Bolsonaro until the end of the government, in December 2022 and maintains it to this day, out of belief in the same values and non-negotiable principles.
General Braga Netto’s defense believes that compliance with the rites of due legal process will elucidate the truth of the facts and the responsibilities of each entity involved in the aforementioned investigations, for their actions and omissions.
Finally, it is vital to raise the issue for those interested in this type of inference and assumption outside the context of the legal inquiry, which has not yet been officially made available for the defenses of interested parties.