The First Chamber of the Brazilian Supreme Court began judging this Tuesday the last six defendants who participated in the coup plot led by former President Jair Bolsonaro, who has already been sentenced to 27 years for that plot.
Among the defendants sitting in the dock starting this Tuesday, Filipe Martins, a far-right activist very close to Bolsonaro, holds special relevance, to the point that he acted as an advisor on International Affairs for the Presidency between 2019 and 2022.
Martins, 41, was considered one of the main links between Brazilian radicals and the American far-right, especially with Steve Bannon, a former collaborator of President Donald Trump.
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Another is Army reserve general Mario Fernandes, accused of planning the assassination of then-president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, his vice president, Geraldo Alkmin, and judge Alexandre de Moraes, at the time head of electoral justice and today rapporteur of the process in the First Chamber of the Supreme Court.
The other inmates are Federal Police commissioner Fernando de Sousa Oliveira, Colonel Marcelo Costa Câmara, former Highway Police director Silvinei Vasques, and former head of Intelligence at the Ministry of Justice Marília Ferreira de Alencar.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, which acts as the prosecuting party, all had some kind of responsibility in the conspiracy hatched by Bolsonaro to prevent Lula’s inauguration after his victory in the 2022 elections against the far-right leader, who aspired to re-election.
For the trial against these six defendants, the First Chamber of the Supreme Court has reserved four hearings, which are expected to conclude on December 17th.
For those events, a total of 31 people were charged and, so far, 24 have been sentenced to terms ranging from one to 27 years in prison.
The highest penalty was applied precisely to Bolsonaro, whom the court considered as the “leader” of that plot, through which he intended to remain in power, according to the conclusions of the criminal trial.
The sentence against Bolsonaro was declared final on November 25th, when the former president began to serve his sentence in the facilities of the Federal Police where he had already been held for several days.
Bolsonaro was already under house arrest for having violated a series of precautionary measures imposed within the framework of the process and was transferred to the Federal Police after he tried to damage an electronic ankle bracelet that was part of those restrictions.
