Brazil: Justice Luiz Fux Argues For Dismissal Of Coup Plot Case
By ABr
By Felipe Pontes and Paula Laboissiere
Supreme Court Justice Luiz Fux on Wednesday (Sep. 10) accepted the allegation of denial of the right to a defense used by the lawyers of former President Bolsonaro and his allies in the criminal case on the alleged coup plot aimed at preventing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from taking office after his 2022 victory.
Justice Fux disagreed with the rapporteur, Justice Alexandre de Moraes, and Justice Flávio Dino, who voted on Tuesday (Sep. 9) to reject all preliminary motions raised by the lawyers – including the denial of the right to a defense.
In his view, the immense volume of data attached to the case and the short time allowed for examining over 70 terabytes of information constituted a violation of the right to defense.
Even though the case is not over yet, Justice Fux in his vote requested to have the proceedings dismissed from the moment the complaint was received onwards, “because of the late availability – which I call a tsunami of data, and which in Anglo-Saxon law is named document dumping.
“It was only in mid-May, about five days before the hearing of witnesses began, that the Federal Police sent access links to the defense teams,” the court authority noted. “As if that were not enough, new files were included over the course of the proceedings,” he added.
Previously, Justice Fux had already voted to annul the entire case on the grounds that the Supreme Court does not have jurisdiction to try the defendants involved in the case, as none of the accused are entitled to privileged jurisdiction in the court, if the rules in force at the time of the crimes charged are observed.
On Tuesday (9), Justice Moraes rejected this preliminary motion, stating that the large amount of data were attached to the case at the request of the defense itself, even though most of the files were not relevant to the investigations, the charges, or the decision made by the justices.
Trial
Justice Fux is the third to vote on the case and the first to disagree on the preliminary issues raised by the defense that could invalidate the proceedings.
On Tuesday (8), Justices Alexandre de Moraes, rapporteur for the criminal case, and Flávio Dino rejected the preliminary motions and voted to convict all eight defendants for the five crimes charged by the Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet.
The trial began last week, when the defense of the former president and his allies were heard, in addition to the statement by the prosecution.
The examination should continue until Friday (12). Justices Cármen Lúcia and Cristiano Zanin, chair of the first panel and tasked with conducting the proceedings, have yet to vote.
The defendants are the first group of individuals named by the prosecution as conspiracy leaders:
- Jair Bolsonaro, former president of Brazil;
- Alexandre Ramagem, former director of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency, ABIN;
- Almir Garnier, former Navy commander;
- Anderson Torres, former minister of justice and former secretary of security for the Federal District;
- Augusto Heleno, former chief of institutional security;
- Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, former minister of defense;
- Walter Braga Netto, former minister of defense and Bolsonaro’s running mate in the 2022 election; and
- Mauro Cid, former aide-de-camp to Bolsonaro.
