After reading the report, Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), opened this Tuesday (11) the trial of the criminal action that targets the defendants from nucleus 3 of the coup plot that aimed to keep former president Jair Bolsonaro in power even after electoral defeat.
The nucleus is made up of nine Army soldiers and a federal police officer, some of whom are accused of actually going into the field to monitor Moraes himself, at the end of 2022, with the aim of kidnapping and killing the minister, or “neutralizing him”, according to the language used in the complaint by the Attorney General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet.
In addition to Moraes, the then-elected president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was monitored, says the complaint. The plan was also to kill him, as well as his vice-elect, Geraldo Alckmin, before they took office in January 2023.
“Monitoring actions began in November 2022”, highlighted Moraes when reading the report on the case. The document summarizes the progress of the process, from its initiation to the final arguments.
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For the PGR, monitoring demonstrates how the coup plan was put into execution, and not just planned. The field actions were part of the so-called “Operation World Cup 2022”, derived from the Punhal Verde e Amarelo plan. The existence of both was found in documentary evidence by the Federal Police.
The minister also briefly summarized the arguments of the prosecution and defenses, highlighting that the parties will have the opportunity to speak immediately after the report.
Like the defendants from the other groups, the nine defendants from group 3 are responsible for the crimes of armed criminal organization, attempted violent abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law, coup d’état, qualified damage due to violence and serious threat and deterioration of listed property.
The defendants are known as “black kids”, soldiers who were part of the Army’s special forces group. The group was also accused of having pressured the commanders of the Armed Forces to join the coup plan, through defamation campaigns.
This Tuesday (11), the trial should be restricted to oral arguments from the prosecution and defenses. The Supreme Court reserved sessions for the 12th, 18th and 19th of November to analyze the case.
The trial takes place in the First Panel of the Supreme Court, composed of ministers Alexandre de Moraes, rapporteur and first to vote, Cristiano Zanin, Flávio Dino and Cármen Lúcia.
Core 3 defendants are:
- 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).
In the case of Lieutenant Colonel Ronald Ferreira de Araújo Júnior, the PGR asked that the accusation be downgraded to the crime of incitement by the Armed Forces against constitutional powers.
With the measure, the accused may be entitled to an agreement to avoid conviction. Currently, he responds to the five crimes charged to all defendants.
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.
Group 2 will be judged from December 9th.
